Library of Alexandria

Ptolemy Soter, the successor of Alexander the Great who had control of Egypt, probably started the world famous Library of Alexandria. In the city where Ptolemy buried Alexander, he started a library that his son completed. (His son may also have been responsible for initiating the project. We just don't know.) Not only was the Library of Alexandria the repository of all the most important written works, but illustrious scholars, like Eratosthenes and Callimachus, worked, and scribes hand-copied books in its associated Museum. The temple to Serapis known as the Serapeum may have housed some of the materials.

Scholars at the Library of Alexandria, paid by the Ptolemies and then Caesars, worked under a president or priest. Both Museum and Library were near the palace, but exactly where is not known. Other buildings included a dining hall, a covered area for walks, and a lecture hall.

In Mesopotamia, fire was a friend of the written word, since it baked the clay of the cuneiform tablets. In Egypt, it was a different story. There papyrus was the principal writing surface. The scrolls were destroyed when the Library burned.

Caesar's troops burned a collection of books. Some believe this was the Library of Alexandria, but the devastating fire in the Library of Alexandria there could have been somewhat later.

Reference: Theodore Johannes Haarhoff and Nigel Guy Wilson "Museum" The Oxford Classical Dictionary.