Bibliothèque de Celsus

"The magnificent Celsus Library is one of the showpiece bulldings among the breathtaking remains of ancient Ephesus (Efes in Turkiski. Ephesus played host to a succession of different ancient civilizations. It was a major center of Ionian Greece before the conquering Romans made it part of their vast empire as the capital of Emperor Augustus's province of Asia The imposing library dates from Roman days and the rule of Emperor Trajan in the second century ce, famed for his massive building program of monumental structures. The library was bullt originally as a combined library and grand tomb for Celsus Polemaeanus-Roman senator, general governor of the province of Asia, and a great booklover by his son, Julius Aquila. The vault itself lies beneath the ground floor, a lead container within a marble tomb. When the building quickly found use as a library, eminent scholars from all over the ancient world congregated here, studying its 12.000 to 15.000 scrolls. East-facing reading rooms caught the very best of the morning light, and an underground tunnel led to an adjacent building that may have been a drinking den or brothel. Most arresting is the library's facade, expertly reconstructed from original remains in modern times. Its main entrance is larger than the entrances on either side, this has the effect of making the building appear a great deal larger than it actually is. There is a second level of columns above the first, and there may have been a third level. The Goth invasion in the third century saw the oty begin its decline from the peaks of grandeur it had reached in its Classical past, and, despite being on the mao of the Byzantine Empire, that decline was weil under way by the late middle ages. Major archeological work took place at Ephesus in the 1800s and today it is a popular tourist attraction."