SE-Ed: What Really Happened to the Library of Alexandria?

It's often described as the greatest library of the ancient world. And it's usually said to have vanished in a single, terrible fire. It makes for a dramatic story. The trouble is, it's almost certainly not what happened. Alexandria was founded in Egypt by Alexander the Great. After his death, his general Ptolemy took control of Egypt, and his family set out to turn the city into a centre of learning. Their ambition was breathtaking: to collect every book ever written! Ships arriving in the harbour were routinely searched for books. Any scrolls on board were copied, and, rather cheekily, the library kept the originals. Athens once lent the king its official copies of great Greek plays, in return for a huge deposit of silver. He simply kept the scrolls and let Athens keep the money. What made the place remarkable, though, was its people. Scholars there worked out how big the Earth was, and drew up one of the earliest library catalogues. Nobody knows exactly how many scrolls it held. Estimates range from forty thousand to several hundred thousand. So what about the famous fire? In 48 BC, Julius Caesar set fire to ships in the harbour. The flames spread to the docks, and thousands of scrolls stored there may well have burned. Yet the library carried on. Scholars were still working there decades later. Had it burned down in a single night, the story would be simpler. What really happened was slower, and arguably sadder. As early as 145 BC, a new king drove many scholars out of the city. Over the following centuries, funding and interest gradually dried up. And papyrus doesn't last forever: scrolls had to be recopied, or they would simply crumble away. In the 270s AD, fighting in the city destroyed the palace quarter. You may also have heard that it was burned in 642 AD. That story first appears over five hundred years later, and most historians consider it a legend. The truth is, great libraries rarely die in flames. They fade away when people stop caring for them. So next time your local library needs support, it might be worth showing up.