Storehouses of Knowledge
c300 BC
-300 -300
30.00E31.15N
LIT

ALEXANDRIA, EGYPT
	Welcome to the Knowledge Adventure Library!  You can use the card catalog in the library to find any topic you wish.
	Just click on the card catalog drawer containing the topic you want to find, then click on the topic itself.  Knowledge Adventure will take you right to a screen on that topic.
	Though electronic libraries are new, other types of libraries have been around for ages.  One of the earliest libraries was a collection of about 10,000 clay tablets discovered in Nineveh (an ancient city in what is now Iraq) during an archaeological excavation in 1850.
	But perhaps the greatest storehouses of knowledge in the ancient world were the great libraries at Alexandria, Egypt.  These libraries were greatly expanded by Ptolemy Philadelphus, the son of one of Alexander the Great's generals and the ruler of Egypt.  They were frequented by many great scholars from throughout the Mediterranean world.
	The Alexandrian libraries held a huge collection of volumes from throughout the Hellenistic world.  Various estimates put the collection at anywhere from 400,000 to 700,000 volumes.
	But as Alexandria declined in political importance, it appears the libraries also declined, and in 640 AD were completely destroyed in a fire of unknown origin.