The most famous library of all time. Established by the Greeks in their new city in Egypt, an attempt to put them on the map, and pull influence away from the homeland. In the same way as Alexander wanted to rule the whole world, the library sought to contain all knowledge.

It contained millions of papyrus rolls and clay tablets. Papyrus was made locally, which helped a lot because the books would have to be transcribed from time to time as the papyrus decayed. In fact, the export of papyrus was banned at one stage, in an attempt to monopolize intellectual property!

But it wasn't just a building of dusty books. The library employed people to catalogue what was had, to procure what was not (sometimes deceitfully, and sometimes at great cost), and attracted intellectuals to become the centre of a community of philosophers, poets, dramatists etc.

The legend is that the library was burned down by Caesar. In fact there were probably many fires over the years, including arson attacks by Christians who saw the old texts as being pagan. But actually the library outlived Caesar by hundreds of years. The library probably died of disuse and neglect, as interest in its contents waned, and the effort of transcribing became uneconomic. There's a lesson right there.