Alexandria's Library Rises Again

It was in 331 BC that Alexander the Great founded a naval base in Egypt that would forever bear his name. But it was under Alexander’s successor, Ptolemy I, that Alexandria really began to flower. Ptolemy made the city his capital and it was soon an immensely wealthy commercial centre, straddling the new trade routes between Europe and Asia. Ptolemy graced his new city by creating a great museum and library near, or perhaps within, the royal palace. Here he brought manuscripts from Aristotle’s own collection which went towards forming the basis of a collection numbering nearly three quarters of a million books.