Elizabeth Cox: What really happened to the Library of Alexandria?

What really happened to the Library of Alexandria?

2,300 years ago, the rulers of Alexandria set out to fulfill an audacious goal: to collect all the knowledge in the world under one roof. In its prime, the Library of Alexandria housed an unprecedented number of scrolls and attracted some of the Greek world's greatest minds. But by the end of the 5th century CE, it had vanished. Elizabeth Cox details the rise and fall of this great building. [TED-Ed Animation by Inna Phillimore]

The Library of Alexandria once aimed to gather every book in the world, housing hundreds of thousands of scrolls and drawing the era’s brightest minds. Its destruction remains shrouded in myth, but the truth is more gradual and complex than a single catastrophic fire. The library withstood sieges and survived for centuries, only to be undone by shifting rulers who saw knowledge as dangerous. Its story warns that preserving information requires defending it from both physical threats and the forces of ignorance.