What I am getting at is African mosaics..........and the history between African and Europe.............the Europeans not only have stolen land from Africa......and its people................by making them slaves.........they stole knowledge..........and by the long history.........Alex the Great............J. Caesar, Mark Anthony...........they knew what was there.............




The Origins of the Ancient Library

Demetrius organised the construction of the 'Temple of the Muses' or 'the Musaeum', from where our word 'museum' is derived. 

The founding of the Library of Alexandria, actually two or more libraries, is obscure. It is believed that around 295 BCE, the scholar and orator Demetrius of Phalerum, an exiled governor of Athens, convinced Ptolemy I Soter to establish the Library. Demetrius envisioned a library that would house a copy of every book in the world, an institution to rival those of Athens itself. Subsequently, under the patronage of Ptolemy I, Demetrius organised the construction of the 'Temple of the Muses' or 'the Musaeum', from where our word 'museum' is derived. This structure was a shrine complex modeled on the Lyceum of Aristotle in Athens, a centre for intellectual and philosophical lectures and discussion.
The Temple of the Muses was to be the first part of the library complex at Alexandria, and was located within the grounds of the Royal Palace, in an area known as the Bruchion or palace quarter, in the Greek district of the city. The Museum was a cult centre with shrines for each of the nine muses, but also functioned as a place of study with lecture areas, laboratories, observatories, botanical gardens, a zoo, living quarters, and dining halls, as well as the Library itself. A priest chosen by Ptolemy I himself was the administrator of the Museum, and there was also a separate Librarian in charge of the manuscript collection. At some time during his reign from 282 BCE to 246 BCE, Ptolemy II Philadelphus, the son of Ptolemy I Soter, established the 'Royal Library' to complement the Temple of the Muses set up by his father.
It is not clear whether the Royal Library, which was to become the main manuscript Library, was a separate building located next to the Museum or was an extension of it. However, the consensus of opinion is that the Royal Library did form part of the Temple of the Muses.
During the reign of Ptolemy II, the idea of the Universal Library seems to have taken shape. Apparently more than 100 scholars were housed within the Museum, whose job it was to carry out scientific research, lecture, publish, translate, copy and collect not only original manuscripts of Greek authors (allegedly including the private collection of Aristotle himself), but translations of works from Egypt, Assyria, Persia, as well as Buddhist texts and Hebrew scriptures.
One story goes that the hunger of Ptolemy III for knowledge was so great that he decreed that all ships docking at the port should surrender their manuscripts to the authorities. Copies were then made by official scribes and delivered to the original owners, the originals being filed away in the Library.
An often quoted figure for the ancient Library holdings at its peak is half a million documents, though whether this refers to the amount of books or the number of papyrus scrolls is unclear. However, in view of the fact that many papyrus rolls were needed to make up an entire book, it is more likely that it refers to the number of scrolls. Even 500,000 scrolls has been thought too high by some scholars, as the construction of a building with such a vast amount of storage space would be an immense, though not impossible undertaking. Nevertheless, during the reign of Ptolemy II the collection at the Royal Library became so vast that a daughter library was established. This library was situated in the precincts of the temple of Serapis, in the Egyptian district of Rhakotis, in the south eastern part of the city. During the librarianship of the Greek writer Callimachus (c. 305 BCE - c . 240 BCE), the daughter library contained 42,800 scrolls, all of which were copies of those in the main Library.