Misfortunate Monday: The Burning of the Library of Alexandria

     Hello everybody and welcome back to another edition of Nations Made Fun! I'll be your host, Mr. Nations, your tour guide to this marvelous world! Today we'll be taking a look at a tragedy from ancient times, the burning of the Library of Alexandria. Well, what are we waiting for? Let's dive straight into it!

     The Library of Alexandria was one of the single greatest archives of human knowledge that this world has ever seen. It was also known as the Museum of Alexandria. The Museum was a place of study and had lecture halls, gardens, a zoo and included shrines to the nine muses as well as the library itself.

     It has been estimated that at one point in time the Library of Alexandria had over half a million documents from Assyria, Greece, Persia, Egypt, India, and many other nations. Over 100 scholars lived at the Museum full time to translate, research, write and lecture documents.

     It is believed that Julius Caesar was responsible for burning down the Museum. Apparently, he had ordered the ships in the harbor to be burned when a large Egyptian fleet cut him off at Alexandria. Greatly outnumbered, he felt that it was the only way to escape capture. He had inadvertently burned down one of the best fountains of knowledge in the world.

     Picture of the Library of Alexandria:

     

     Sources: https://ehistory.osu.edu/articles/burning-library-alexandria