Welcome to the Library!

Come, come! I have a very special story to tell! A fantastic one with pharoahs and a famous explorer named Alexander the Great. Shhhhhh! Listen! We are in 290 BC. The Library of Alexandria is under-consruction. This is her story...

Thursday, December 10, 2009

The Destruction of the Wonder


Around 217 B.C.E, the Egyptians revolted against their Greek rulers. (Egypt was ruled by Greece...?I thought Egypt was ruled by Egypt...) Most of their over-seas territories were turned over to Mediterranean Empires. (bummer, but life in the 3rd century B.C.E.) Many scholars left, decreasing the library's importance. Cleopatra contacted Julius Caeser, and they attacked Cleopatra's brother, Ptolomey (not the first). They set fire to the Egyptian's military fleet, and the winds carried fire to the shore...(Alexandria is close by.This is a nail-biter!)...and burned down one of the ancient wonders. Gasp! How could this happen?! 400,000 of the estimated 490,000 scrolls were destroyed. We know so little about this facsination, only the remaing scrolls tell us of this magnifacent library.

No comments:

Post a Comment