WEBVTT

00:00:07.238 --> 00:00:09.119
2,300 years ago,

00:00:09.119 --> 00:00:11.801
the rulers of Alexandria 
set out to fulfill

00:00:11.801 --> 00:00:14.196
one of humanity’s most audacious goals:

00:00:14.196 --> 00:00:18.590
to collect all the knowledge in the world 
under one roof.

00:00:18.590 --> 00:00:19.824
In its prime,

00:00:19.824 --> 00:00:23.623
the Library of Alexandria housed 
an unprecedented number of scrolls

00:00:23.623 --> 00:00:27.157
and attracted some of 
the Greek world’s greatest minds.

00:00:27.157 --> 00:00:31.697
But by the end of the 5th century CE,
the great library had vanished.

00:00:31.697 --> 00:00:35.227
Many believed it was destroyed 
in a catastrophic fire.

00:00:35.227 --> 00:00:39.483
The truth of the library’s rise 
and fall is much more complex.

NOTE Paragraph

00:00:39.483 --> 00:00:42.776
The idea for the library came 
from Alexander the Great.

00:00:42.776 --> 00:00:45.038
After establishing himself as a conqueror,

00:00:45.038 --> 00:00:47.846
the former student of Aristotle 
turned his attention

00:00:47.846 --> 00:00:52.524
to building an empire of knowledge 
headquartered in his namesake city.

00:00:52.524 --> 00:00:54.732
He died before construction began,

00:00:54.732 --> 00:00:56.745
but his successor, Ptolemy I,

00:00:56.745 --> 00:01:01.354
executed Alexander’s plans 
for a museum and library.

NOTE Paragraph

00:01:01.354 --> 00:01:03.740
Located in the royal district of the city,

00:01:03.740 --> 00:01:05.266
the Library of Alexandria

00:01:05.266 --> 00:01:08.105
may have been built 
with grand Hellenistic columns,

00:01:08.105 --> 00:01:09.940
native Egyptian influences,

00:01:09.940 --> 00:01:15.061
or a unique blend of the two--there are 
no surviving accounts of its architecture.

00:01:15.061 --> 00:01:20.089
We do know it had lecture halls, 
classrooms, and, of course, shelves.

00:01:20.089 --> 00:01:21.958
As soon as the building was complete,

00:01:21.958 --> 00:01:26.441
Ptolemy I began to fill it with
primarily Greek and Egyptian scrolls.

00:01:26.441 --> 00:01:30.842
He invited scholars to live 
and study in Alexandria at his expense.

00:01:30.842 --> 00:01:34.490
The library grew as they contributed 
their own manuscripts,

00:01:34.490 --> 00:01:39.695
but the rulers of Alexandria still wanted 
a copy of every book in the world.

NOTE Paragraph

00:01:39.695 --> 00:01:44.332
Luckily, Alexandria was a hub for ships
traveling through the Mediterranean.

00:01:44.332 --> 00:01:49.441
Ptolemy III instituted a policy requiring 
any ship that docked in Alexandria

00:01:49.441 --> 00:01:51.943
to turn over its books for copying.

00:01:51.943 --> 00:01:55.080
Once the Library’s scribes 
had duplicated the texts,

00:01:55.080 --> 00:01:58.553
they kept the originals 
and sent the copies back to the ships.

00:01:58.553 --> 00:02:02.094
Hired book hunters also scoured 
the Mediterranean

00:02:02.094 --> 00:02:03.912
in search of new texts,

00:02:03.912 --> 00:02:06.735
and the rulers of Alexandria attempted 
to quash rivals

00:02:06.735 --> 00:02:12.173
by ending all exports of the Egyptian 
papyrus used to make scrolls.

NOTE Paragraph

00:02:12.173 --> 00:02:16.274
These efforts brought hundreds 
of thousands of books to Alexandria.

00:02:16.274 --> 00:02:17.825
As the library grew,

00:02:17.825 --> 00:02:21.856
it became possible to find information 
on more subjects than ever before,

00:02:21.856 --> 00:02:26.689
but also much more difficult to find 
information on any specific subject.

00:02:26.689 --> 00:02:32.059
Luckily, a scholar named Callimachus of
Cyrene set to work on a solution,

00:02:32.059 --> 00:02:33.851
creating the pinakes,

00:02:33.851 --> 00:02:37.238
a 120-volume catalog 
of the library’s contents,

00:02:37.238 --> 00:02:39.307
the first of its kind.

NOTE Paragraph

00:02:39.307 --> 00:02:40.745
Using the pinakes,

00:02:40.745 --> 00:02:43.888
others were able to navigate 
the Library’s swelling collection.

00:02:43.888 --> 00:02:46.721
They made some astounding discoveries.

00:02:46.721 --> 00:02:49.414
1,600 years before Columbus set sail,

00:02:49.414 --> 00:02:52.732
Eratosthenes not only realized 
the earth was round,

00:02:52.732 --> 00:02:55.234
but calculated its circumference 
and diameter

00:02:55.234 --> 00:02:57.728
within a few miles of their actual size.

00:02:57.728 --> 00:03:01.330
Heron of Alexandria created 
the world’s first steam engine

00:03:01.330 --> 00:03:03.205
over a thousand years before

00:03:03.205 --> 00:03:06.638
it was finally reinvented during 
the Industrial Revolution.

00:03:06.638 --> 00:03:13.685
For about 300 years after its founding 
in 283 BCE, the library thrived.

NOTE Paragraph

00:03:13.685 --> 00:03:19.211
But then, in 48 BCE, Julius Caesar 
laid siege to Alexandria

00:03:19.211 --> 00:03:21.800
and set the ships in the harbor on fire.

00:03:21.800 --> 00:03:26.827
For years, scholars believed the library 
burned as the blaze spread into the city.

00:03:26.827 --> 00:03:30.314
It's possible the fire destroyed 
part of the sprawling collection,

00:03:30.314 --> 00:03:32.135
but we know from ancient writings

00:03:32.135 --> 00:03:36.661
that scholars continued to visit 
the library for centuries after the siege.

00:03:36.661 --> 00:03:41.235
Ultimately, the library slowly disappeared
as the city changed from Greek,

00:03:41.235 --> 00:03:42.266
to Roman,

00:03:42.266 --> 00:03:43.172
Christian,

00:03:43.172 --> 00:03:45.177
and eventually Muslim hands.

00:03:45.177 --> 00:03:48.323
Each new set of rulers viewed 
its contents as a threat

00:03:48.323 --> 00:03:50.786
rather than a source of pride.

00:03:50.786 --> 00:03:52.882
In 415 CE,

00:03:52.882 --> 00:03:56.288
the Christian rulers even had 
a mathematician named Hypatia

00:03:56.288 --> 00:03:59.956
murdered for studying 
the library’s ancient Greek texts,

00:03:59.956 --> 00:04:02.379
which they viewed as blasphemous.

NOTE Paragraph

00:04:02.379 --> 00:04:06.903
Though the Library of Alexandria 
and its countless texts are long gone,

00:04:06.903 --> 00:04:09.625
we’re still grappling 
with the best ways to collect,

00:04:09.625 --> 00:04:10.557
access,

00:04:10.557 --> 00:04:12.506
and preserve our knowledge.

00:04:12.506 --> 00:04:14.737
There’s more information available today

00:04:14.737 --> 00:04:17.383
and more advanced technology 
to preserve it,

00:04:17.383 --> 00:04:19.040
though we can’t know for sure

00:04:19.040 --> 00:04:22.487
that our digital archives 
will be more resistant to destruction

00:04:22.487 --> 00:04:25.790
than Alexandria’s ink and paper scrolls.

00:04:25.790 --> 00:04:29.406
And even if our reservoirs of knowledge 
are physically secure,

00:04:29.406 --> 00:04:32.672
they will still have to resist 
the more insidious forces

00:04:32.672 --> 00:04:34.869
that tore the library apart:

00:04:34.869 --> 00:04:36.252
fear of knowledge,

00:04:36.252 --> 00:04:39.791
and the arrogant belief 
that the past is obsolete.

00:04:39.791 --> 00:04:43.967
The difference is that, this time, 
we know what to prepare for.