Destruction of Knowledge

In the ancient world, there was a great library which was predicted to house more than 40.000 books. That library was The Great Library of Alexandria. It’s destruction is a great lost to humanity culture and knowledge wise. This catastrophe, which has set back humanity for centuries, was not only the burning of the building, it was already being destroyed before the fire.

First damage to the building was dealt during Julius Caesar’s the Siege of Alexandria in the first century. The second damage occurred in the 3rd century. Queen Zenobia of Palmyra had set out to conquer Egypt. During the battle, library was further damaged. A century later, an edict declared by the Roman emperor Theodosius outlawed the traditional pagan religions in favor of Christianity. This meant demolition of temples like Serapeum, which was a part of the library at the time.

Lastly the great fire. Person or group responsible is still debated. Most popular suspect is Julius Caesar. People think that he was the one who kindled the flames.

So, unlike popular belief, fire was not the only reason why library was destroyed but it was the one who put the building to an end.