The ancient library of Alexandria was founded by Demetrius of Phaleon with support from King Ptolemy first Soter who ruled Egypt between 323 and 285 BCE.
The library is believed to have housed between 200,000 and 700,000 books. It was part of an institution of higher learning known as the Alexandrian Museum. The books at the library were divided into the following subjects: rhetoric, law, epic, comedy, lyric poetry, and natural science.
Books were acquired for the library through purchases at Athens and Rhodes, and through confiscation from ships coming into Alexandria.
They were mainly written in two languages: Greek and Egyptian. The first translation of the Hebrew Bible, the Septuagint, was held there. The ancient library of Alexandria was destroyed on two different occasions.
When Julius Caesar intervened in the civil war between Cleopatra and Ptolemy thirteen, Caesar set fire to the ships in the harbor.
This fire spread to the library and destroyed it. In 391 CE, Roman Emperor Theodosius ordered all pagan temples to be destroyed including the Serapis temple which harbored the second branch of Alexandria Library. It is good to remember that