See all Historic Place in Istanbul
Library of Celsus
Acarlar Mahallesi, 35920 Selçuk/İzmir, TurkeyAbout
The Library of Celsus is an ancient Roman building in Ephesus, Anatolia, now part of Selçuk, Turkey. It was built in honour of the Roman Senator Tiberius Julius Celsus Polemaeanus, completed between circa 114-117 A.D.By Celsus' son, Gaius Julius Aquila (consul, 110 AD). The library was "one of the most impressive buildings in the Roman Empire" and built to store 12,000 scrolls and to serve as a mausoleum for Celsus, who is buried in a crypt beneath the library in a decorated marble sarcophagus.The Library of Celsus was the "third-largest library in the ancient world" behind only Alexandria and Pergamum.The interior of the library and all its books were destroyed by fire in the devastating earthquake that struck the city in 262 AD or as multiple other sources report, by fire that same year during a Gothic invasion.Only the façade survived. About 400 AD, the library was transformed into a Nymphaeum. The façade was completely destroyed by a later earthquake, probably in the eleventh or tenth century.
