In the mid-19th century, archaeologists found the ruins of the world's oldest known library in Nineveh (modern-day Iraq).
It dates back to the 7th century B.C and includes 30,000 cuneiform tablets, mostly containing archival documents, religious incantations and scholarly texts.
Around 120 A.D. the son of the Roman consul Tiberius Julius Celsus Polemaeanus completed a memorial library to his father in Ephesus (modern-day Turkey).
The building featured four statues representing Wisdom, Virtue, Intelligence, and Knowledge.