The entire complex was known as the Museum (in Latin). The Alexandrian library was never found, so we must depend on the surviving ancient literary sources. The compound appears to have been situated in the vast royal district of the city bordering the Eastern Harbor. The Museum had a hall furnished with recesses and seats accommodating both lecture and study. It also had a communal residence with a dining hall. The complex has many paintings and statues, as was the custom. Aristotle and his followers usually walked around as they discussed philosophy, which is why there was extensive gardens and shaded walks for protection from inclimate weather. Within the temple complex, a library was constructed to house the manuscripts on which scholars of the Museum necessarily relied on and which they practiced the art of scholarly recension. In these days a library was not a building of its on, but was inside temples, which was a tradition in Egypt.
Members of the Museum were individually recruited from cities all over the Mediterranean and were paid alluring stipends(salaries) by the Ptolemies and, later, by Roman emperors, for as long as they pursued their studies at the Museum. These scholars formed an elite group. They received many rewards such as: stipends, free living accommodations, and communal meals, as well as full exemption from the Roman poll tax, a privilege usually only enjoyed by Roman citizens and citizens of Greek cities. Many immigrants were attracted to Alexandria because of the support of the royal patronage and the opportunity to pursue scholarship within a community of intellectuals. Alexandria rapidly accumulated an impressive collection of manuscripts ranging from, literary to philosophical and rhetorical to scientific. The Alexandrian library was not a public collection though, it was private.
The wealth of Egypt allowed its rulers to devote a considerable amount of time and resources to the collection of books. One of the most famous ancient texts was of the Greek translation of the first five books of the Old Testament by Jewish scholars who were invited to Alexandria. There were also a lot of other works in Greek on Egyptian history and religion, as well as other cities history and religions. Original works by Alexandrian poets, rhetoricians, and historians were also added to the collection. The Ptolmies pursued all the major books of the day. The Alexandrian library was basically built in three ways. It was built by copying, by means of confiscation, and by the production of new works and translations. The Ptolmies went pretty far to make sure they got all the books they could and sometimes went to extremes. When Ptolemy III ruled Egypt, he ordered all the ships that came to Alexandria to be searched and every book that was found to be seized and copied. The King returned copies to the owners of the books, but he kept the originals for the library. On another occasion, he allegedly refused to give the Athenians grain in a severe famine, unless they let him borrow master copies of certain dramas. When they did let him borrow the master copies, he kept the originals and gave them copies of the dramas. It was noted by a young philosopher that the Ptolemies had collected so many manuscripts to display their wealth and power and not for the sake of learning.
As the library grew it was impossible to hold all the books and manuscripts in the Museum. So they moved some of the volumes in an annex. At about 50 B.C., the main Alexandrian library was estimated to have possessed between 400,000 and 700,000 volumes. A volume was a single papyrus roll, which may contain several brief works. This is only considered the roughest of estimates, in that time they hardly had the time or means to count the collections.
It was said that the library was destroyed in 48/47 B.C. Ceasar had ordered his troops to set fire to the Ptolemaic fleet and supposedly the Etesian winds spread the flames to warehouses and dockyards, and thus destroyed the library. It was unclear to as whether the library itself was destroyed or the warehouses containing volumes packed for exports was destroyed. Some scholars agree that the warehouses being burned was confused with the main library. Literary sources do not conclusively prove that the main library was destroyed in 48/47 B.C.
Although this talk of the library being destroyed, it is unlikely that many manuscripts survived into late antiquity. In A.D. 215, the Roman emperor massacred Alexandrian youth and punished the Museum. He also abolished the Museums funding and the stipends of its members. With no stipends to be received, hardly any scholars came to this particular temple of wisdom, not to mention that there was not any funding for the temple to keep it up and going. In A.D. 272, the entire royal district was attacked. Twenty-three years later, the city was then again attacked, citizens were murdered, and their books confiscated and burned. Then in A.D. 365, an earthquake hit Alexandria causing further damage to the library. In 315, it was noted that although a library still existed in the complex, only those containing philosophical works were accessible, and those associated as being with the cult of pagan deities had been closed. In 391, a Christian mob attacked and ravaged the complex, thus destroying many manuscripts that were not of the Christian beliefs.
Contrary to the Classical Tradition, The Islamic Tradition tends to see it a little different. Arab historians credit the Muslim general, Amr, in the Arab conquest of Egypt in A.D. 642 in destroying the library in Alexandria. He allegedly burned the entire collections of the library, "heating some four thousand public baths at Alexandria for a full six months." This theory is found skeptical for several reasons. First, it is highly unlikely that many pagan manuscripts survived under the attack of Christian zealots. Second, this story suddenly surfaced in the thirteenth century after five and a half centuries of silence. And lastly, the same story is recorded with the connection of another library in Persia.
No one is quite sure when the library was completely destroyed. Though we do know this, it was undoubtedly effected by the ignorance of man and of the military. No other libraries contained as many great and intellectual manuscripts as this one . The Western tradition has greatly mourned the lost wisdom of the ancient world and the extraordinary collections of the library at Alexandria and will never completely disappear into history.
Philip Harris, PEH6642