100 things challenge - 12: Libraries
Jun. 6th, 2012 11:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
birdienlI love libraries! Don't you bibliophiles (a.k.a. the largest part of my friends list!) all love them? The best ones are the oldest I think, with dark oak cabinets and staircases and the wonderful smell of many many leather-bound books.....
Right, before I ramble on and on, let's get to the facts! The oldest known library in the world was the Royal Library of Ashurbanipal, founded around 700 BC by Ashurbanipal, the last king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire. The site of the library is in current Iraq and was discovered in 1849 by British archaeologists. It contained thousands of clay tablets and wax tablets, including royal decrees, letters, mythological and religious texts and texts relating to medicine and astronomy. But the most famous of them all was the Epic of Gilgamesh, the masterpiece of Babylonian poetry. Unfortunately, because of sloppy handling by the discovering archaeologists, the tablets have become very jumbled, making it impossible for scholars to reconstruct many of the original texts....
The oldest still running library in the world is the Saint Catherine's Monastry at the foot of Mount Sinai in Egypt. It was build in the 6th century and has always collected, stored and given access to important manuscripts and later books. Currently, the library of Saint Catherine's houses the worlds second largest collection of religious materials in the world (after the Vatican Library). Unfortunately, the library is not accessible to everyone, just to monks or invited scholars.
Right, before I ramble on and on, let's get to the facts! The oldest known library in the world was the Royal Library of Ashurbanipal, founded around 700 BC by Ashurbanipal, the last king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire. The site of the library is in current Iraq and was discovered in 1849 by British archaeologists. It contained thousands of clay tablets and wax tablets, including royal decrees, letters, mythological and religious texts and texts relating to medicine and astronomy. But the most famous of them all was the Epic of Gilgamesh, the masterpiece of Babylonian poetry. Unfortunately, because of sloppy handling by the discovering archaeologists, the tablets have become very jumbled, making it impossible for scholars to reconstruct many of the original texts....
The oldest still running library in the world is the Saint Catherine's Monastry at the foot of Mount Sinai in Egypt. It was build in the 6th century and has always collected, stored and given access to important manuscripts and later books. Currently, the library of Saint Catherine's houses the worlds second largest collection of religious materials in the world (after the Vatican Library). Unfortunately, the library is not accessible to everyone, just to monks or invited scholars.
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Date: 2012-06-06 10:46 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2012-06-07 09:03 am (UTC)Best!
Date: 2012-06-07 06:23 am (UTC)St Catherines looks incredible!
Re: Best!
Date: 2012-06-07 09:03 am (UTC)Re: Best!
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Date: 2012-06-07 08:57 pm (UTC)I LOVE libraries too ♥
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Date: 2012-06-08 05:42 pm (UTC)