Library of Celsus

The two-storey façade of the Library of Celsus is the most photographed structure at Ephesus and one of the iconic images of the ancient world. Built around AD 117 as a mausoleum and library for the Roman governor Celsus, it originally held around 12,000 scrolls stored in niches between the columns — the third-largest library in the Roman world after Alexandria and Pergamon. The façade was meticulously reconstructed in the 1970s from original fragments scattered across the hillside.

The architectural sophistication is immediately apparent: the columns on the lower storey are slightly taller than those on the upper, giving the illusion of greater height. The four marble statues in the niches are reproductions — the originals are in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, removed during Austrian excavations in the nineteenth century. The building faces east to receive morning light through its doors, which were deliberately aligned to illuminate the reading room.

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A story
The library was not primarily a place of study. It was built in AD 117 by Tiberius Julius Aquila as a monumental tomb for his father, the Roman governor Celsus Polemaeanus, whose sarcophagus lies in a lead-lined vault beneath the floor. The scrolls stored in niches above him — perhaps 12,000 — were secondary to the prestige of the building. The four statues in the niches represent Wisdom, Knowledge, Intelligence, and Virtue: the qualities Aquila wanted his father remembered for.

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