Ancient Library of Alexandria: History, Ruins and What to See Today

What was the ancient Library of Alexandria, and can you still see it? The Library was the great research collection of the Ptolemaic kings, founded in Alexandria in the early 3rd century BC and home to scholars such as Eratosthenes, who calculated the circumference of the Earth. Nothing of the Library itself survives above ground, and historians still disagree about how it disappeared. What you can visit today is the modern Bibliotheca Alexandrina, built near where the ancient Library is thought to have stood, plus the Serapeum that held its “daughter” collection, Roman catacombs, a Roman theater and a Mamluk fortress on the site of the Lighthouse. This guide covers the history, what to see and how to visit Alexandria as a day trip from Cairo.

Planning a trip? See our Egypt travel guide, things to do in Cairo and our wider guide to things to do in Alexandria.

The Library of Alexandria at a glance

The ancient Library: what it was

The Library of Alexandria was the royal library and research center of the Ptolemaic kings of Egypt. Alexander the Great founded Alexandria in 331 BC, and after his death his general Ptolemy made it the capital of Egypt. The Ptolemaic kings then set out to gather the written knowledge of their world in one place.

• Who founded it: most modern scholars think the Library became a working institution under Ptolemy II Philadelphus. A later ancient text, the Letter of Aristeas, credits Demetrius of Phalerum with organizing it under Ptolemy I, but historians treat that account with caution.
• Where it stood: it was part of the Mouseion, a research institution dedicated to the Muses, in the royal quarter of the city (the Brucheion) near the Great Harbor.
• How it grew: the kings paid agents to buy books abroad. According to the Roman physician Galen, books found on ships arriving in Alexandria were taken and copied, and the library kept the originals while the owners received the copies.
• A second collection: when the main library ran out of space, a “daughter” library was placed in the Serapeum, the temple of the god Serapis built under Ptolemy III.

The scholars of Alexandria

The Library mattered because of the people who worked there. Zenodotus, its first head librarian, edited the texts of Homer. Callimachus compiled the Pinakes, a catalog in 120 books that is sometimes called the first library catalog. Eratosthenes, the third head librarian, calculated the circumference of the Earth. Aristophanes of Byzantium introduced Greek accent marks, and Aristarchus of Samothrace wrote influential commentaries on Homer.

How many books the Library held is not known. Figures from ancient writers and modern estimates range from about 40,000 to 700,000 scrolls, and any single number you read should be treated as a guess.

How was the Library destroyed?

There is no agreed answer, and most historians now think the Library declined gradually over several centuries rather than vanishing in one fire. Popular accounts tend to pick a single villain, but the sources are late, partial and often contradict each other. These are the main episodes that are usually cited:

• 145 BC, the scholars leave: Ptolemy VIII expelled foreign intellectuals from Alexandria, and leading scholars such as Aristarchus left the city.
• 48 BC, Julius Caesar’s fire: during Caesar’s siege of Alexandria, fire spread near the harbor. Ancient writers disagree about what burned. One tradition says 40,000 scrolls were lost, while another suggests warehouses of books near the docks burned. Scholars generally conclude the Library was not completely destroyed, and the geographer Strabo visited the Mouseion around 20 BC.
• AD 272, war in the royal quarter: forces of the emperor Aurelian destroyed the Brucheion quarter while fighting Queen Zenobia of Palmyra. References to the Mouseion and its scholars fade out around this time.
• AD 391, the Serapeum: the Serapeum, which had housed the daughter collection, was destroyed after an edict of Emperor Theodosius I, in events linked to Bishop Theophilus. Whether many books were still there by then is unclear.
• AD 642, the Arab conquest story: a tale that Caliph Omar ordered the books burned first appears in Arabic writers more than 500 years later. Most historians regard it as a legend, since the Library had probably disappeared long before.

Lack of funding, political turmoil, the loss of its scholars and repeated warfare in the city all played a part. If someone tells you exactly who burned the Library of Alexandria, they are telling you one version of a disputed story.

The Bibliotheca Alexandrina today

The Bibliotheca Alexandrina is the modern library and cultural center that Egypt built to revive the spirit of the ancient Library, and it is the first stop for most visitors interested in the Library of Alexandria. The site, chosen in 1974, lies on the seafront near where the ancient Library is believed to have stood. The Norwegian firm Snøhetta won the international design competition, organized with UNESCO in 1988, and the building opened in October 2002.

• The building: a huge disk-shaped roof of glass tilts toward the Mediterranean, and the curved outer wall of granite is carved with characters from about 120 writing systems.
• The reading room: about 20,000 m² spread over eleven terraced levels beneath the glass roof, the largest in the world when it opened. The library has shelf space for about eight million books.
• Four museums: the Antiquities Museum, the Manuscripts Museum, the Sadat Museum and the History of Science Museum. The Antiquities Museum is one of the few museums that displays objects found on its own site, uncovered while the library was being built, as well as finds from the sea.
• The Planetarium Science Center: a planetarium with scheduled shows, which the library lists among its activities for children and young people.
• Exhibitions: about 15 permanent exhibitions, including the Culturama panoramic hall, plus temporary shows and events.

The library’s website lists it as closed on Fridays, with shorter hours on Saturdays. Check the current schedule and planetarium show times on the Bibliotheca Alexandrina website before you go.

Ancient Alexandria you can still see

Little of ancient Alexandria survives, because earthquakes, a tsunami in AD 365, sinking coastland and the modern city built on top have erased most of it. The sites that remain are spread across the city, so most visitors see them by car with a guide.

Pompey’s Pillar and the Serapeum

This is the closest you can get to the Library itself: the hill where the Serapeum stood and where the Library’s daughter collection was kept. The temple is in ruins, but its great column still stands. Pompey’s Pillar is a single shaft of pink granite from Aswan, about 27 m (88 ft) tall with its base and capital, raised around AD 298–302 in honor of the emperor Diocletian. It has nothing to do with Pompey; the name comes from a misreading of its Greek inscription. Two granite sphinxes stand near the column, and underground galleries remain beneath the temple site.

The Catacombs of Kom el-Shoqafa

Close to the Serapeum, the Catacombs of Kom el-Shoqafa are the best known of Alexandria’s ancient cemeteries. They were cut into the bedrock in the 2nd century AD and rediscovered in 1900, when a donkey fell into the access shaft. A spiral staircase winds around a central shaft down three levels of tombs. Look for the triclinium, a banquet hall with stone benches where families held funeral meals, and for carvings that mix Egyptian gods with Greek and Roman styles in the same tomb.

The Roman theater at Kom el-Dikka

In the city center, the excavations at Kom el-Dikka show what late Roman Alexandria looked like. The centerpiece is a small theater with tiers of marble seats, which Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities describes as the only example of its kind in Egypt. Around it are the remains of a large bath complex, a group of lecture halls that may have belonged to a school of higher learning, and the Villa of the Birds with its floor mosaics. A Polish-Egyptian archaeological mission has worked here since 1960.

The Citadel of Qaitbay and the Lighthouse

The Lighthouse of Alexandria, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, was begun under Ptolemy I and finished under Ptolemy II. Its height is estimated at more than 100 m, though no exact figure survives. Earthquakes between the 10th and 14th centuries brought it down. In 1477–1479 the Mamluk sultan Qaitbay built a fortress on its site at the eastern tip of Pharos Island, and the Lighthouse’s last remains were used in its construction. In 1994 a French team located blocks from the Lighthouse on the floor of the Eastern Harbor. Today you can walk the citadel’s walls and look out over the water where those stones lie.

The Alexandria National Museum

For the objects that survived, go to the Alexandria National Museum, opened in 2003 in a restored Italian-style palace on Tariq El Horreya Street. It holds around 1,800 artifacts arranged by period across three floors: the pharaonic era, the Greek and Roman city (including pieces from Heraklion and Canopus), and the Coptic, Islamic and modern periods.

Alexandria as a day trip from Cairo

Yes, you can see the main sites of ancient Alexandria in a day from Cairo, but it is a long day. The Cairo–Alexandria Desert Road runs about 220 km from Giza, and in practice the drive takes around three hours each way, depending on traffic. Intercity trains run by Egyptian National Railways also arrive at Alexandria’s Misr and Sidi Gaber stations, but you would still need transport between sites once you arrive.

The simplest option is a private car with a guide. Simsem host Mahmoud Fawzy runs an Alexandria day trip from Cairo that follows a route like this:

1. Early morning: hotel pickup in Cairo or Giza and the drive north.
2. Late morning: the Catacombs of Kom el-Shoqafa, then Pompey’s Pillar and the Serapeum nearby.
3. Lunch: a meal at a local restaurant.
4. Afternoon: the Bibliotheca Alexandrina.
5. Late afternoon: the Citadel of Qaitbay on the harbor, then the drive back to Cairo.

If you want to add Kom el-Dikka and the National Museum, or simply slow down by the sea, stay a night. Our Alexandria city guide covers the Corniche, seafood and more things to do.

Tips for visiting

• Avoid Fridays for the Bibliotheca: the library lists Friday as a closed day, so plan your day trip for another day of the week.
• Start early from Cairo to beat traffic and reach the first site by mid-morning.
• Group the sites: the Serapeum and the catacombs are close together, and the Bibliotheca and the Citadel of Qaitbay both face the harbor.
• Wear comfortable shoes: the catacombs involve stairs and uneven rock floors.
• Read a little history first: the sites are fragments, and they make far more sense once you know the story of the Ptolemies and the Library.
• Check opening hours before you go, especially in Ramadan and on public holidays. See the best time to visit Egypt for weather.

Travel with a local guide

Simsem’s local hosts run these trips to Alexandria and around Cairo:

Meet every host on our local guides in Egypt page.

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