Season's Savings | ₹5/mo for 3 months
₹199/month after first 3 months. Renews automatically. Terms apply.
Who Really Destroyed the Library of Alexandria?
Julius Caesar, the Murder of Hypatia, a Caliph Who Never Lit the Fire and How Ancient Knowledge Really Disappears
Failed to add items
Sorry, we are unable to add the item because your shopping basket is already at capacity.
Add to cart failed.
Please try again later
Add to wishlist failed.
Please try again later
Remove from wishlist failed.
Please try again later
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
₹0.00 for first 30 days
Season's Savings
₹5/month for first 3 months
Offer ends on 28 December, 2026.
Only ₹5/month for first 3 months.
Get 1 credit per month to use on any title of your choice.
Listen to anything from the Plus Catalogue—thousands of audiobooks, podcasts, and Audible Originals.
₹199/month after first 3 months. Cancel anytime. Renews automatically. Offer ends 28 December, 2026.
1 credit a month to use on any title to download and keep
Listen to anything from the Plus Catalogue—thousands of Audible Originals, podcasts and audiobooks
Download titles to your library and listen offline
₹199.00 per month after 30-day trial. Cancel anytime.
Who Really Destroyed the Library of Alexandria?
Narrated by:
AI Voice James
Buy Now for ₹273.95
-
Narrated by:
-
AI Voice James
-
Written by:
-
Henry Rearden
This title uses virtual voice narration
Virtual voice is computer-generated narration for audiobooks.
About this listen
The most famous fire in history never happened.
The story everyone repeats is simple: one night of flames, and the greatest library of the ancient world was gone. The blame lands on Julius Caesar, a Christian mob or a Muslim caliph, depending on who is telling it. Every version has a villain. None of them is the whole truth.
The real story is stranger and far more uncomfortable. The library was built by kings of Egypt who seized books from every ship in the harbor. It was gutted by a ruler who drove its scholars into exile, battered by Roman wars and Caesar’s fighting beside Cleopatra, and left to decay long before any legendary blaze. Its most famous late scholar was murdered by a mob. And the caliph blamed for its end conquered Egypt centuries after the library had already faded.
How the kings of Egypt stole the master copies of Greek literature and kept them
How a librarian measured the size of the Earth with a shadow and a well
Why the scholars fled long before the flames
Why the caliph’s infamous order is almost certainly a later invention
How a lost work of Archimedes survived scraped off and hidden under a monk’s prayer book
Why the great libraries of today are still being lost, to war and to neglect
Libraries are rarely murdered in a single night. They are abandoned, one shelf at a time.
adbl_web_anon_alc_button_suppression_t1
No reviews yet