5. The Library of Celsus was built by a Roman Consul in honor of his father – and he buried the old man under its western wall.
Located in the city of Ephesus, in modern-day Turkey, the Library of Celsus was the third-largest library in the whole of the ancient world, after only those famous libraries at Alexandria and Pergamum. As the Latin inscription found in the front staircase states, the library was built by Gaius Julius Aquila in the year 110. He constructed it to honor his dead father, Gaius Julius Celsus Polemeanus, who served as the Roman governor of Asia Minor. Moreover, the son also ordered his father to be buried under the western wall of the library, right next to its rich collections.
It’s believed that the Library of Celsus held as many as 12,000 manuscripts. Most would have been either in Latin or in ancient Greek, with a particular emphasis on the night sky, medicine and philosophy. All of the scrolls were housed in small niches built into the walls. Moreover, they were protected from the heat and humidity thanks to the innovative design of the building: the architects ensure that there was a gap between the outer and inner walls, a clever innovation for the time. Tragically, the Library of Celsus was almost completely destroyed in an earthquake in 262.