The Great Library of Alexandria
The Great Library of Alexandria was a repository for a great many ancient texts. Although the city of Alexandria has survived to the present day, the Great Library has not.

Ancient Alexandria
Egypt's Alexandria was founded by one of the world's most famous figures and has endured as one of the world's most famous cities. Alexander the Great mapped out the site himself, in April 331 B.C., along with chief architect Dinocrates. The original city was built near an existing Egyptian city called Rhakotis. Eventually, the two cities melded, as did the various Mediterranean cultures that inhabited and passed through Alexandria down through the centuries.

Famous Libraries in History
The Great Library of Alexandria was one of the most famous libraries in history, but it was by no means the only one. History is full of great libraries.

The Library of Ashurbanipal
The first concerted effort to build a library is thought to have been that of King Ashurbanipal of Assyria, who gathered a very large number of cuneiform texts in a collection at Nineveh, the Assyrian capital. His name translates as "Ashur has made another son." Ashur was also a city in ancient Assyria.

The Epic of Gilgamesh
The Epic of Gilgamesh is one of the world's earliest hero stories; as such, it is the source for many other stories of its kind.