Library of Celsus
The Library of Celsus (Greek: Βιβλιοθήκη του Κέλσου) is an ancient Roman building in Ephesus, Anatolia, today located nearby the modern town of Selçuk, in the İzmir Province of western Turkey. The building was commissioned in the years 110s CE by a consul of the Roman Empire, Tiberius Julius Aquila Polemaeanus, as a funerary monument for his father Tiberius Julius Celsus Polemaeanus, former proconsul of Asia, and completed during the reign of the Roman Emperor Hadrian, sometime after Aquila's death.
Βιβλιοθήκη του Κέλσου | |
Façade of the Library of Celsus | |
Shown within Turkey | |
| Location | Ephesus |
|---|---|
| Region | Aegean |
| Type | National library |
| Part of | Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome |
| History | |
| Cultures | Greek, Roman |
| Site notes | |
| Excavation dates | 1903–1904, restored 1970–1978 |
| Archaeologists | Volker Michael Strocka |
| Condition | partly restored ruins |
| Public access | Archaeological site |
The Library of Celsus is considered an architectural marvel, and is one of the only remaining examples of great libraries of the ancient world located in the Roman Empire. It was the third-largest library in the Greco-Roman world behind only those of Alexandria and Pergamum, believed to have held around 12,000 scrolls. Celsus is buried in a crypt beneath the library in a decorated marble sarcophagus. The interior measured roughly 180 square metres (2,000 square feet).
The interior of the library and its contents were destroyed in a fire that resulted either from an earthquake or a Gothic invasion in 262 CE, and the façade by an earthquake in the 10th or 11th century. It lay in ruins for centuries until the façade was re-erected by archaeologists between 1970 and 1978.