Ephesus roman city pictures
Ephesus (Turkey)

Title: Celsus Library
Description: Built in 135 AD, it is a monumental tomb for Gaius Julius Celsus Polemaeanus, the governor of the province of Asia; from his son Galius Julius Aquila. The grave of Celsus is beneath the ground floor, across the entrance.
The building was used as a library, the scrolls of the manuscripts were kept in cupboards in niches on the walls. There were double walls behind the bookcases, probably to prevent the manuscripts from humidity. The capacity of the library was more than 12,000 scrolls.
The facade of the library is two-storied, with Corinthian style columns on the ground floor, and behind it, there are three entrances to the building. The one in the middle is higher than the other two. The statues in the niches of the columns today are the copies of the originals, which were taken to Viana on the excavations in 1910. The statues symbolize wisdom (Sophia), knowledge (Episteme), intelligence (Ennoia) and virtue (Arete) of Celsus.

GPS coords: 37.9391081128092,27.34071671962738
previous thumbnails index next