Alexandrian Library, in Alexandria, Egypt, was the largest and most famous of the ancient collections of scrolls. The Egyptian rulers Ptolemy I and Ptolemy II developed it in the 200’s B.C. It contained about 500,000 scrolls. In the late A.D. 200’s, the library was destroyed during a war over control of the Roman Empire. Not a trace of the ancient library remains today. The Bibliotheca Alexandrina, a large research library that opened in Alexandria in 2002, is a revival of the ancient library. See also Library (Ancient libraries of papyrus) .
