Have Some "Shelf" Control: The Library of Alexandria (Part One)

The library as an institution is nothing new. The first libraries came about with the world's first cities. In the land of Sumer in present-day Iraq, Uruk boasted an impressive library, where people from throughout the region could read and study texts. Assyrian king Ashurbanipal had his own personal library with clay tablets on a wide variety of subjects. But the biggest and most impressive of Antiquity's libraries was that which was housed in Alexandria, Egypt. Join me this week for a tour of this incredible institution and how it gained a reputation throughout the known world.