Libraries represent man's best attempt at knowledge transfer. IN modern world these majestic institutions have evolved into important social structures that not only offer book reading but are also meeting places different people, different ideas, discussions and debates. Libraries, and in particular the ones below, are the epicenters of activity in the areas where they are located. We present a list of the 10 most best libraries in a world where we would love to spend our days if they were a little closer to us.
Library of Congress - National Library United States and the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library consists of 3 different buildings and is the largest library in the world. The library is open to the public, but only members of Congress and other important government officials have access to the books. The library also performs an important function as the "library of last resort" in the US, confirming the availability of certain books to other libraries across the country.
The library's collection is simply astonishing - there are 32 million books, 61 million manuscripts, a preliminary version of the Declaration of Independence, a perfect parchment version of the Gutenberg Bible (1 of 4 in the world), more than 1 million newspapers from the last 3 centuries, more than 5 million maps, 6 million pieces of music and over 14 million photographs and prints.
Bodleian Library This is the library at Oxford University. Founded in 1602, it is considered the oldest library in Europe. The library has more than 11 million titles historical significance, among them 4 copies of the Magna Carta, the Gutenberg Bible, Shakespeare's "First Tome" (dated 1623).
The library consists of many buildings, perhaps the most interesting of which is the Radcliffe Library. This is the very first circular library in England. She also appeared frequently in a variety of films: Young Sherlock Holmes, The Saints, The Red Violin and The Golden Compass.
Reading room of the British Museum located in the center of the Great Court of the British Museum. It has a domed roof with a ceiling made of different kind papier mache. For most of its history, only registered explorers were allowed in, and during this period many notable figures such as Karl Marx, Oscar Wilde, Mahatma Gandhi, Rudyard Kipling, George Orwell, Mark Twain, Vladimir Lenin, and H.G. Wells.
In 2000, the library collection was moved to the new British Library, and the Reading Room now houses an information center and a collection of books related to history, art, travel and other items related to the British Museum.
By the way, the British Museum is one of.
After opening in 1848 Boston public library became the first library in the United States to be funded by the public. Since then, it has grown to its current size with 22 million units, making it the 2nd largest in the US.
The McKim Library Building was built in 1895 and contains many beautiful murals, among which is the most famous work by Edward Abbey, which depicts the legend of the Holy Grail. The main room of the McKim building, Bates Hall, is known for its spherical ceiling. The McKim Research Collection consists of 1.7 million rare books, among which there are many medieval manuscripts, incunabula, early works Shakespeare such as the First Folio, the Boston Colonial Recordings, Daniel Defoe's main collection, and the libraries of many famous historical figures such as John Adams, William Lloyd Garrison, and Matthew Bowditch.
If you are in these parts, then do not forget to visit one of the nearby - Somerset Lighthouse.
Incredible Seattle Central Library opened in 2004. Her modern design made of glass and steel was designed by architects Rem Koolhaas and Joshua Prince-Rasmus. The aim of this design was to create an inviting open and free space and break the stereotype that libraries should be drab and nondescript in order to attract the younger generation and a new target audience. The library is designed for 1.45 million books and receives more than 2 million visitors annually.
Known New York Public Library is the awe embodied in its layout, scope and size. It is the third largest library in North America with over 50 million titles in its collection. It, in turn, consists of 87 libraries that serve 3.5 million people.
Main reading room Libraries cannot but please the eye. The library's special collections include the first Gutenberg Bible to appear in America. It is also one of the most recognizable libraries in the world due to its appearances in many Hollywood films, in the films "The Day After Tomorrow" and "Ghostbusters", where she is assigned the main role.
Abbey Library of Saint Gall- the most old library in Switzerland, has about 160,000 works. This is one of the oldest monastery libraries in the world, containing manuscripts dating back to the 8th century. Since 1983, it has also been included in the World Heritage List. Many of the library's rare manuscripts can be accessed through the online portal. The library is always open to visitors, but as for books published earlier than 1900, they can only be read on the site.
Jay Walker is an American inventor and businessman who used his funds to develop an expensive private library. Walker calls his brainchild " Walker History of the Human Imagination Library". The library is located in his home in Connecticut and contains more than 50,000 books, including many early works and books, thanks to which it can be considered one of the main museums in the world.
The surreal architecture of the building is inspired by the work of Mariutz Cornelis Escher. Wired magazine called the library "the most amazing library in the world." The only reason it's so low on our list is because it's closed to the public.
George Peabody Library is a research library at Johns Hopkins University. The library was part of the Peabody Institute from 1878 until 1967, when it was taken over by the city and transferred to Johns Hopkins University in 1982 and now houses the university's special collections of books.
The library is famous for having the largest collection of Don Quixote editions, as well as many other works that relate to XIX century. Very often the library space is described as a "monastery of books" - the interior consists of an atrium 18 m high, a floor of black and white marble, as well as many balconies and golden columns. The library is open to both readers and visitors.
Library of Alexandria was the largest library of antiquity and one of the wonders of the world. There is hope that new library, after reconstruction, will one day match its famous predecessor. The library was built at a cost of $220 million and was completed in 2002. The library functions as Cultural Center which includes a planetarium, a manuscript restoration laboratory, art galleries and exhibition halls, museums, a convention center, and libraries for children, youth, adults, and the blind.
Today, the library boasts a collection of about 500,000 books, but in general, there is enough space for 8 million books.
These libraries are a storehouse of history, culture, a world heritage that we must preserve, cherish and pass on to our descendants. Which one would you like to visit?
Libraries were rare in ancient times. After all, most people couldn't even read. If by chance they were trained to do this, then finding the written word was difficult, because they were usually carved on hard tablets or painstakingly copied onto papyrus (this had to be done every few years, because the ink faded and errors were made in the writing process). Therefore, the presence of a library (or archive) was important. This indicated that the city was cultured and educated. However, apart from the famous Library of Alexandria, most of us will not be able to name any other ancient library. Today we are going to change that. Check out 25 Incredible Ancient Libraries You Should Know About.
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25. The Library of Alexandria was one of the wonders of the ancient world, and it was brutally destroyed by a fire that broke out around 48 BC. e. (no one knows for sure) when Julius Caesar himself set fire to the harbor in hopes of defeating an invading army. There is nothing in this story that is not tragic and sad.
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24. Bodleian Library - Home science Library Oxford University (University of Oxford) in England. It was founded in 1602 when Thomas Bodley donated money and part of his own collection, to replace the books and documents that were destroyed during another of the many coups. The Bodleian Library currently holds approximately 11 million volumes, not including online publications and journals, and is regularly used by students and scholars.
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23. The Library at Timgad was a gift to the Roman people from Julius Quintianus Flavius Rogatianus. Nobody knows exactly when it was built, and its architecture is rather boring - it is rectangular in shape. It is estimated that there were about 3,000 scrolls in the library, but what is important is that this library showed that the Roman city had a developed library system that says about high level learning and culture.
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22. In the ruins of a temple in the ancient Babylonian city of Nippur, several rooms were discovered with clay tablets inside, which indicated that the Nippur temple had a well-stocked library dating back to the first half of the 3rd millennium BC.
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21. The Qing Dynasty lasted from 221 to 207 BC. e., but its influence on the region was lasting. After all, that's where the name "China" came from. For much of that time, the government has been very careful with the library as it has been trying to control access to information (these people wouldn't have survived in the age of the internet). All books that the government did not like were burned, as were some scholars. Despite the overbearing and cruel government, which burned everything they considered unnecessary, many people walled up books in the walls of their houses to save them. The purpose of the government was not to destroy information, but to control it, and for this purpose the new system writing, and ordinary people reading was encouraged. This alone has been a unifying fact in China for centuries.
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20. The library on the Greek island of Kos is a good example of an early provincial library. During the Ptolemaic dynasty, Kos became a center of learning and science. Hippocrates - the great physician - came from Kos and he probably studied here.
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19. Temple of Edfu (Edfu) in Ancient Egypt, dedicated to the God Horus, who looks like a falcon, was located on west bank Nile at Edfu, Upper Egypt. Next to the courtyard was a small room built between 237 and 57 BC. BC, which contained papyrus scrolls, and the inscriptions on the walls speak of "many chests of books and large leather rolls" - this means that the temple had its own library of bound books. Quite rare for that time.
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18. The Academy of Gondishapur in the ancient Iraqi city of Gondishapur was the intellectual center of the Sassanid empire, and it is believed that not only theology, natural sciences, mathematics and philosophy, but also medicine. Gondishapur also had a hospital, which in the 6th and 7th centuries was perhaps the world's most important medical center.
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17. In ancient times, Baghdad in Iraq was the center of knowledge and culture, and here was perhaps the most famous library - the House of Wisdom, founded in the ninth century. Some of the earliest and most famous scientists and mathematicians of the Middle East frequented him. The House of Wisdom was destroyed in 1258, because of... the Mongols.
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16. The Kingdom of Ebla was one of the first known Syrian Kingdoms. It began with a small settlement that arose in bronze age, and then it was built and destroyed several times over the following centuries, before finally being destroyed in 1600 BC. The Library at Ebla was found to contain over 1,800 clay tablets and many more tablet fragments. It is not clear if this was a public library or the royal personal library, but it remains the oldest library - its tablets are about 4,500 years old.
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15. Theological Library Of Caesarea Maritima. Once in Caesarea, located between Haifa and Tel Aviv on the coast mediterranean sea in northern Israel, was the Theological Library of Caesarea, which was part of the city's Christian Academy. The academy and library were the center of Christian and Jewish education and the source of the texts, and also contained Greek literature both historical and philosophical. The library supposedly had over 30,000 manuscripts. It was destroyed by the Arabs in the 7th century.
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14. Constantinople was the heart of a glorious Byzantine Empire before being brutally taken over by the Ottomans in 1423 (some of us still can't get over it). But before they could get to it, the Imperial Library of Constantinople, including the Scriptorium, in which the ancient papyri were transcribed and copied, was destroyed by the fourth crusade, in the 1200s (we also can’t put up with it. Leave Constantinople alone already!).
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13. The Library Of Pergamum was founded around 170 BC. e., during the reign of King Eumenes II (Eumenes II), in a place that is now known as Bergama (Bergama) in Turkey. Some historians believe the library may have been built to compete Library of Alexandria. It was said to hold over 200,000 volumes, it had a large main reading room with shelves, and like the other libraries on this list, there was space between the outer and inner walls to protect precious writing from moisture and temperature fluctuations.
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12. The Temple of Apollo Palatinus in ancient Rome had its own library. In accordance with the classical tradition, Greek and Latin works were kept separately, and the library itself was large enough to hold meetings of the Senate. The librarian was an educated former slave- Guy Julius Gigin (C. Iulius Hyginus).
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11. Perhaps one of the most famous libraries in the ancient world, the Ulpia Library (Bibliothea Ulpia) was one of the most famous Roman libraries, it survived until the second half of the fifth century AD. We know it lasted this long from the writings of Venantius Fortunatus dated 576 AD.
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10. In 1303 (already during the Middle Ages), after the death of Pope Boniface VIII (Pope Boniface VIII), the Papal Library was transferred to Avignon, France, where it became the basis for the famous Vatican Library, which in currently housed in the Vatican, it holds over 1 million printed books and about 75,000 manuscripts (and presumably secret archives).
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9. Aristotle's library was private collection and very little is known about it. A first-century geographer named Strabo wrote of her: "The first man, as far as I know, collected books and taught the kings in Egypt how to organize a library." Some believe that the collection of Aristotle became the basis of the Great Library of Alexandria.
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8. In 1200 BC ancient city, located on the territory of modern Syria, Ugarit (Ugarit), boasted not one, but five libraries. Two of them were private, which is even more impressive. Most of the collections were large clay tablets, and their contents, written in at least seven different characters, covered many fields (including fiction).
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7. Timbuktu is located in Mali (Mali) in West Africa, and during the Ancient World and the Middle Ages it was a well-known intellectual center that was full of libraries, as well as a famous University (this was before you could go online, so having a University was a serious indicator). More than 700,000 manuscripts from these libraries have been rediscovered, and they deal mainly with Islam and Islamic subjects.
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6. The University of Taxila was located in ancient India, in a place known as the country of Gandhar (now Pakistan). Founded around 600 BC BC, it offered instruction in 68 subjects and at one point had over 10,000 students from all over the ancient world, and the university library was highly valued. The site of the University of Taxila is now a protected area where archaeological work is being carried out.
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5. Nalanda University in Bahir, India, from about 400 AD was one of the most important intellectual centers in ancient world, and his library was named "Dharmaganja (Treasury of Truth)". It had nine floors, and the monks copied manuscripts non-stop so that pundits would have their own copies—an unheard-of luxury in the ancient world. Turkish invaders burned down the university in 1193.
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4. The Celsus Library in Ephesus was one of the largest libraries in the ancient world, containing about 12,000 handwritten books. There were many outer walls designed to protect the precious books from moisture and temperature fluctuations, but unfortunately the library was destroyed by fire in the third century AD, although parts of the surviving front wall were rebuilt in the fourth century.
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3. Named after the last Great King of the New Assyrian Kingdom and its founder, the Royal Library of Ashurbanipal was built around 650 BC. e. King Ashurbanipal was passionate about the written, or rather carved, word, so in 1849 more than 30,000 cuneiform tablets and their fragments were recovered from the ruins of the library. Now they are safe in the British Museum (British Museum). This library and its (re)discovery was very important to study ancient history Middle East.
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2. The Villa of the Papyri is located in Herculaneum, Italy. It is one of the few classical libraries still surviving today. It was discovered by archaeologists in 1752 and contained more than 700 charred scrolls. It is assumed that the estate, of which the library is part, belonged to Julius Caesar's father-in-law, Lucius Calpurnius Piso Caaesoninus.
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1. The Al-Qarawiyyin Library in Fez, Morocco is possibly the oldest library in the world. In 2016, it was restored and opened to the public. The library first opened in 859 (no, we didn't miss the number, there are only 3 of them), but was closed to the public for a very long time. The architect in charge of the restoration project, Aziza Chaouni, herself a Moroccan native, ensured that the newly restored library reopened its doors to the public.
In the depths of the Sinai Peninsula (Egypt), at the foot of Mount Sinai, lies the city of St. Catherine. It is here, in the desert region, among granite rocks and harsh mountains, that the oldest library is located.
Between 548 and 565, the Eastern Roman emperor Justinian ordered the construction of a monastery on this site, dedicated to Catherine. The monastery has never been destroyed or plundered by anyone in its entire history, which makes it the oldest active Christian monastery in the world. It contains the world's oldest continuously operating library, containing the second largest collection of early codices and manuscripts in different languages. This library is surpassed only by the Vatican Library in its significance.
The monastery is surrounded by a massive wall erected in the 6th century. Access to it, until the 20th century, was only through a single door in the outer wall. The entrance through the small gate to the left of the main gate appeared recently.
The great treasure of the monastery is its icons and mosaics on the walls: they represent the best collection of early icons in the world. Most of these icons belong to the 6th century, and some to an even earlier period.
The monastery library is an even greater treasure. Ashtinam Muhammad, an Islamic prophet, is said to have secured the monastery's immunity. In addition to rare manuscripts of a religious nature (his collection contains the missing parts of the Code of Sinaitis, a handwritten copy of the Greek Bible of the 4th century), the library has the first editions of Homer (1488), Plato (1513), the comedies of Aristophanes (1498), the Great etymological dictionary Greek (1499) and the Lexicon of Svidus Lexicon Suidae (1499), which contains numerous quotations from ancient authors.
The monastery attracts over 100,000 visitors every year.
It was compiled for 25 years in the Assyrian capital of Nineveh by order of King Ashurbanipal (VII century BC). It also served as a state archive.
After the death of the king, the funds were scattered among various palaces. The part of the library discovered by archaeologists consists of 25,000 clay tablets with cuneiform texts. The opening of the library in the middle of the 19th century was of great importance for understanding the cultures of Mesopotamia and for deciphering cuneiform writing. 
Ashurbanipal intended to create a library that was supposed to exhaust all the knowledge accumulated by mankind. He was especially interested in the information necessary for governing the state - on how to maintain constant communication with the deities, on predicting the future by the movement of the stars and the entrails of sacrificial animals. That is why the lion's share of funds were texts of conspiracies, prophecies, magical and religious rituals, mythological tales. The bulk of the information was extracted from the Sumerian and Babylonian texts by specially organized teams of scribes.
The library had a large collection of medical texts (with an emphasis on healing through sorcery), but the rich mathematical heritage of Babylonia was inexplicably ignored. There were numerous lists of literary epic legends, in particular, tablets with the epic of Gilgamesh and the mythological translation of Enuma Elish, as well as tablets with prayers, songs, legal documents(for example, the code of Hammurabi), economic and administrative records, letters, astronomical and historical works, records of a political nature, lists of kings and poetic texts.
The texts were written in Assyrian, Babylonian, a dialect of the Akkadian language, and also in Sumerian. A great many texts are presented in parallel in Sumerian and Akkadian, including encyclopedic editions and dictionaries. As a rule, one text was stored in six copies, which today greatly facilitates the work of deciphering the tablets. To date, Ashurbanipal's library is the largest collection of texts in the Akkadian language.
The foundation of the library took place on the orders of the Assyrian ruler Ashurbanipal, who was distinguished by a great interest in texts and knowledge in general. Ashurbanipal's predecessors had small palace libraries, but none of them had such a passion for collecting texts. Ashurbanipal sent numerous scribes to different regions of their country, so that they make copies of all the texts they come across. In addition, Ashurbanipal ordered copies of texts from all major temple archives, which were then sent to him in Nineveh. Sometimes, during military campaigns, Ashurbanipal managed to capture entire cuneiform libraries, which he also delivered to his palace.
The librarians of Ashurbanipal did a great job of cataloging, copying, commenting and researching the texts of the library, as evidenced by numerous glossaries, bibliography and commentaries. Ashurbanipal himself gave great importance organizing the library. His name was written on each tablet (a kind of ex-libris), the name of the original tablet from which the copy was made was given in the colophon. The library had hundreds of waxed-page codices, which made it possible to correct or rewrite text written on wax. Unlike cuneiform tablets (which are only hardened during fires), wax tablets are short-lived. They have not survived, as well as the scrolls in the library - parchment and papyrus. Judging by the ancient catalogs, no more than 10% of all funds collected by Ashurbanipal have survived to this day.
A huge array of cuneiform texts has come down to our days solely thanks to Ashurbanipal's passion for the written word. In many cases, ancient Mesopotamian writings have survived only in copies made by order of this ruler. Some of the texts presented have a history of thousands of years (although the tablets themselves are not very ancient, in normal conditions they have rarely been kept for more than 200 years).
Ashurbanipal himself was proud that he was the only Assyrian ruler who could read and write. On one of the tablets, his personal record was found:
“I studied what the wise Adapa brought me, mastered all the secret art of writing on tablets, began to understand predictions in heaven and on earth, participate in discussions of pundits, predict the future together with the most experienced interpreters of divination by the liver of sacrificial animals. I can solve complex, complex division and multiplication problems, I constantly read masterfully written tablets in such a complex language as Sumerian, or as difficult to interpret as Akkadian, I am familiar with antediluvian stone records that are already completely incomprehensible.
Ashurbanipal's own notes (probably compiled by the best scribes) are of high literary quality.
A generation after Ashurbanipal, his capital fell under the blows of the Medes and Babylonians. The library was not plundered, as is usually the case in such cases, but turned out to be buried under the ruins of the palaces where it was kept.
In 1849 most the library (which was kept in the northwestern palace on the banks of the Euphrates) was found by the British archaeologist Austen Henry Layard. Three years later, Layard's assistant, the British diplomat and traveler Hormuzd Rasam, found the second part of the library in the opposite wing of the palace. Both pieces were taken to the British Museum for storage. The opening of the library allowed scientists to get a first-hand idea of the Assyrian culture. Prior to this, Assyria was known only from the works of Herodotus and other historians of Hellas, and the Persians, in turn, served as their source. the greatest sensation in the scientific community made the discovery of the epic of Gilgamesh with a presentation biblical history about the global flood.
When extracting the tablets from the wreckage, careful accounting of the place of their discovery was not carried out. In the British Museum, both parts were placed in a common depository, so it is now impossible to judge which tablets were found where. Scientists are still working on sorting separate fragments("joints"), cataloging and deciphering texts. The British Museum is working with Iraqi scientists to establish a museum-library in Iraq, where reproductions of the original tablets are to be displayed.
Libraries have long become an integral part of the culture of every nation. But once collections of books were owned only by the richest and most powerful people and only select readers were allowed into the vaults. What is the oldest library in the world? Historians consider it a huge collection of clay books, which belonged to the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal, who lived more than 2.5 thousand years ago - after all, all the copies there were already sorted and cataloged.
Winged bulls liked more
In 1847, the English explorer Austin Henry Layard, in search of ancient monuments, began excavations of the Kuyundzhik hill on the left bank of the Tigris River. Under a layer of earth, he discovered the remains of a ruined palace erected on an artificial terrace. Among the items ancient art Layard found large basalt stones with cuneiform inscriptions, after deciphering which it turned out that the archaeologist managed to find Nineveh, ancient capital Assyria, and the palace itself belonged to its ruler, King Ashurbanipal, who lived in 685-627 BC.
In addition to a large number of preserved statuettes, seals and even sculptures, the workers led by Layard brought to the surface about 30,000 cuneiform clay tablets burned in the fire or in the sun. Layard himself was not too interested in them, the researcher was much more attracted by the preserved works of art (such as stone winged bulls with human faces), which he sent to London. Nevertheless, the tablets also moved to the British Museum, where they simply lay in storage for several decades.
In 1852, Layard's assistants found about the same number of written clay tablets in another wing of the palace, and they were also taken to London. In the British Museum, both parts of the collection of clay texts were placed in a common repository, so it is now impossible to determine in which place certain tablets were found - but the main thing is that the texts, consisting of several parts, became scattered, and this made further research very difficult.
In 1854, Layard arranged in London crystal palace an exhibition of his findings, the main exhibits of which were reconstructed statues and bas-reliefs. The event aroused a wide interest in Assyrian culture, many scientists began to decipher its writing. After reading the first clay manuscripts, it became clear that they were the main treasure of the found ancient city.
Like a wine cellar
The collection of clay tablets turned out to be the oldest library in the world, created at the behest of King Ashurbanipal. During his reign, Nineveh reached the pinnacle of power, there was no longer anyone to fight, and the king gave all his strength to collecting texts.
First of all, Ashurbanipal decided to collect any documents of the state. He sent his people to all the settlements and temple archives, who were to copy the texts available there and deliver them to the king. Some tablets reproduce much earlier writings and contain information about events that happened hundreds and thousands of years before the time of copying.
The library itself was very different from modern book depositories and outwardly looked like a wine cellar. On the floor were benches made of clay, on them were large earthenware vessels, where the tablets were placed. The same vessels stood on the shelves. There were almost no trees in Mesopotamia, so the shelves were also made of clay. The vessels that stood on them were smaller; short texts- songs, royal decrees, letters, etc.
At the same time, the collection of texts was a real library. It had a catalog where data about any book was recorded: the title, the number of tablets, as well as the section of knowledge to which the manuscript belongs. A clay tag was attached to each shelf indicating the section and the titles of the books placed on it. Above the entrance to the vault was an inscription threatening those who would wish to steal or spoil the books - the inevitable punishment of the gods awaited them, and the names of the villains and their heirs were forgotten forever.
Evidence of the Flood
The largest number of texts related to the field of magic. The powerful king was very interested in how to find out the events of the future and retain power by communicating with higher powers. Therefore, conspiracies, religious rituals and prayers are recorded on many clay tablets. But in the library there was also a place for mathematical works, works on astronomy, history, medicine, as well as dictionaries of foreign words, because trade relations connected Assyria with many states. Some books are copied from much older Sumerian or Babylonian texts, the originals of which have not survived to our time.
Among the clay manuscripts were even the first geographic Maps! They displayed quite large territory from the state of Urartu (modern Armenian highland) to Egypt - with the names of countries and cities.
The library kept and works of art, in particular, a copy of the record of the Sumerian legend about fairy tale hero Gilgamesh, the original of which, according to scientists, was created in XVIII-XVII centuries BC.
In 1872, the translator George Smith announced that one of the tablets contained an excerpt from the story of the Flood. The Daily Telegraph gave him funds for a separate expedition to Nineveh in order to find the missing parts of the book - and Smith did it successfully. Subsequent linguistic research proved that it is a copy from ancient book, written in the Sumerian city of Uruk (in the Bible it is called Erech) almost three thousand years ago, is another confirmation that global flood was a real event.
Assyrian printers
Scientists believe that the first clay books appeared among the ancient Sumerians. First, blanks were made, the dimensions of which were approximately 32 by 22 centimeters, and the thickness was 2.5 centimeters. For the convenience of writing, they were marked with a stretched thread. parallel lines. Then symbols were squeezed out on the tablets with a pointed stick. Usually they covered both sides of the workpiece, and sometimes even its ends, while the last line of the previous plate was reproduced at the beginning of the next. Under the text, the scribe put a deep cross line, and under it - the name of the book to which he referred this fragment, and serial number tablets.
If the work had to be interrupted, the workpiece was wrapped in a wet rag and stored in this form. The completed tablet was fired in a kiln or dried in the sun.
The Assyrians took over from much more ancient people technology for creating clay books - but they made changes to it that can be called revolutionary.
The study of the tablets from the library of Ashurbanipal helped scientists make a startling discovery: it turned out that in the time of the Assyrian kings there already existed printing. Small documents that had to be sent to all the settlements of the country - for example, state decrees - were not copied manually. For their manufacture, a wooden matrix was cut out and clay slips were made from it.
Mysterious and wise people
The oldest library in the world contributed to the study of the mysterious, which is considered one of the most ancient on our planet. It originated in the valley of the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates six thousand years ago. Where these people came from is still unknown. Their language is unlike any other in the world, including the languages of the Semitic tribes living next to them. The Sumerians themselves in their legends claim that they arrived from the large island of Dilmun, but so far they have not been able to find their homeland. That they most likely came by sea, says the fact that their first settlements were built at the mouths of rivers. In addition, all the most important gods in their mythology are associated with the sea, and the main occupation of the Sumerians was shipping.
It is not clear where the people who came from had amazing knowledge in the field of astronomy (including the fact that the Earth was born as a result of a cosmic catastrophe), medicine, mathematics, architecture and others. scientific disciplines. Many scholars claim that it was the Sumerians who invented the wheel, the potter's wheel, and even brewing. At the same time, due to the complexity of their writing (in the writing of the Sumerians in different time there were from 600 to 1000 characters), researchers for a long time could not read the texts that have survived to this day. And in the library of Ashurbanipal, dictionaries for translating from Sumerian into the Assyrian language were preserved, as well as scientific work devoted to the interpretation of difficult passages in Sumerian texts. They helped a lot in deciphering the ancient writing.
Gold is more valuable than books
Ashurbanipal was the last great king of Assyria. Already 15 years after his death, hordes of nomads invaded the country - mostly Medes, who were supported by the soldiers of the states conquered by the Assyrians. About the capture of Nineveh tells ancient legend: residents of the capital, surrounded by impregnable walls, successfully repelled enemy attacks. Then the besiegers blocked the Tigris, the water overflowed its banks and flooded the city. The last king of Assyria, in order not to fall into the hands of enemies, set fire to the palace and burned in its flame.
The city was almost completely sacked, but clay tablets, unlike gold and jewelry, did not attract the attention of illiterate nomads. Moreover, the re-fired inscriptions acquired additional strength and have survived to this day. And after a few centuries, hills formed above the ruins - and the oldest library in the world disappeared underground.
Nikolai Mikhailov
