Alexandria, 300 BC -- Ancient Egypt
300 BC -- Alexandria, Egypt
The greatest library the world has ever known. A harbor city where knowledge was the ultimate treasure.
Historical Curiosities
Discover real facts hidden throughout this diorama.
The Library of Alexandria may have held over 400,000 scrolls. Nobody knows for sure -- ancient librarians kept arguing about the count.
Alexandria was founded by Alexander the Great in 331 BC. He never saw the finished city -- he died eight years later in Babylon.
The Pharos Lighthouse stood over 100 meters tall and was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. It guided ships for nearly 1,000 years.
Eratosthenes, the head librarian around 240 BC, calculated the circumference of the Earth using shadows and geometry -- and was remarkably close.
Scholars at the Library were given free housing, meals, and tax exemptions. Ancient Alexandria basically invented the research fellowship.
The city was designed on a grid plan -- one of the first in the ancient world. Its two main streets were each 30 meters wide.
Cleopatra, the last Ptolemaic ruler, spoke nine languages. She was the first in her dynasty to actually learn Egyptian.
Ancient Alexandria had an underground canal system that brought fresh water from the Nile -- over 20 kilometers away.