Library of Alexandria. How was the greatest book collection of antiquity created and who destroyed it?

Dark Energy Articles
6 min readJan 4, 2023

It is the most important library of the ancient world. The Library of Alexandria was founded by the king of Egypt, Ptolemy I. It was the world’s first and the largest library in antiquity.

Library of Alexandria — [Photo: Wikimedia, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons]

Alexandria was named after its creator and ruler. It was Alexander of Macedon between 332 and 323 B.C. who laid the foundation for a cosmopolitan, wealthy and almost immortal metropolis. In ancient times it was called “Alexandria by Egypt” to emphasize its distinctiveness from the rest of Egypt.

Alexander himself determined the outline of the city’s boundaries and decided on the location of individual buildings, such as the agora, temples of Greek deities, etc. The leader was also the author of the division of Alexandria into five districts. However, Macedonius had no connection with the famous Library of Alexandria.

How was the Library of Alexandria created?

The probable builder of the famous bookstore was Ptolemy I Soter. He was one of Alexander the Great’s generals, founder of the Ptolemaic dynasty and ruler of Egypt from 323–283 BC. Alexandria was the country’s capital at the time.

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