The Library of Alexandria

The Ancients

History Hit

History

4.7 • 3.5K Ratings

🗓️ 25 April 2024

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The Library of Alexandria was one of the most important and most celebrated buildings of the ancient Mediterranean. It was a great hub of learning and literature and made Alexandria one of the ancient world’s foremost centres of knowledge and culture, and the jewel of the Nile Delta. But when was it built? And where did all the books come from?

In today’s episode of The Ancients, Tristan Hughes speaks to Dr. Islam Issa about the story behind one of histories greatest libraries. Together they explore why Alexandria’s reigning dynasty - the Ptolemies - were so obsessed with acquiring knowledge and uncover whether it really did burn down in a great fire.

This episode was produced by Joseph Knight and edited by Aidan Lonergan.

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Transcript

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0:17.0	The Library of Alexandria, one of those amazing complexes of the ancient Mediterranean world. More than 2,000 years ago, this was one of the most celebrated buildings of ancient Alexandria,
0:22.0	filled with all sorts of literature
0:24.3	that helped define the city as one of the greatest centers of knowledge and culture in the
0:29.4	Mediterranean.
0:30.4	So what's the story behind this great building?
0:33.0	Why did Alexandria's rulers, the Ptolemy's become obsessed and fascinated with adding to its collection?
0:39.0	And of course, did it really burn down in a massive fire caused by none other than Julius Caesar?
0:46.0	How much information was lost?
0:48.0	Well, listen on, there are a lot of myths to bust.
0:51.0	Now our guest today is Dr Islamissa from Birmingham City University.
0:54.4	Islam he came down to London to do this interview in person in a studio. I had my Ptolemy shirt
0:59.9	to hand and we had a lot of fun recording this chat. I really do hope you enjoy.
1:05.0	And here's Islam.
1:09.0	Islam, it is wonderful to have you on the podcast.
1:12.0	I'm really happy to be here and I'm even happier with your t-shirt.
1:15.2	Of course, we're talking about Hellenistic history and the city of Alexandria.
1:18.4	Of course we cannot not mention the one and only Tollamy the first.
1:22.1	But we're talking about the great library and I know it's not one of the official wonders but this feels like one of those incredible monumental pieces of architecture from the Greco-Roman world.
1:32.0	Yeah, I mean one of the issues is we don't know much about how it would have looked.
1:37.0	We have to assume it was grand.
1:39.0	We have to assume that it had these colonnades and statues and marbled pillars.
1:45.0	But at the same time, the Lighthouse, which was one of the ancient winters of the world,
	...

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