At the time of the eruption of Vesuvius in AD 79, the valuable library was packed in cases ready to be moved to safety when it was overtaken by pyroclastic flow; the eruption eventually deposited some 20-25 m of volcanic ash over the site, charring the scrolls but preserving them— the only surviving library of Antiquity— as the ash hardened to form tuff.[1]

Using multi-spectral imaging, a new technique that was developed in the early 1990s it is possible to read the burned papyri. With multi-spectral imaging, many pictures of the illegible papyri are taken using different filters in the infrared or in the ultraviolet range, finely tuned to capture certain wavelengths of light. Thus, the optimum spectral portion can be found for distinguishing ink from paper on the blackened papyrus surface. Non-destructive CT scans will, it is hoped, provide breakthroughs in reading the fragile unopened scrolls without destroying them in the process.

The library collection at the Library of Alexandria contained more than 120,000 scrolls, which were grouped together by subject matter and stored in bins. Each bin carried a label with painted tablets hung above the stored parchments. Pinakes was named after these tablets and are a set of books or scrolls of index lists. The bins gave bibliographical information for every scroll. A typical entry started with a title. It also provided the author's name, birthplace, his father's name, any teachers he trained under, and his educational background. It contained a brief biography of the author and a list of the author's publications. The entry had the first line of the work, a summary of its contents, the name of the author, and information about where the scroll came from.

Callimachus' system divided works into six genres and five sections of prose. They were rhetoric, law, epic, tragedy, comedy, lyric poetry, history, medicine, mathematics, natural science and miscellanies. Each category was alphabetized by author. The Pinakes proved indispensable to librarians for centuries. It became a model to use all over the Mediterranean. Its influence can be traced to medieval times, even to the Arabic counterpart of the tenth century: Ibn-Al-Nadim's Al-Fihrist ("Index").

One column had a diameter of 7.5 feet. Corinthian capitals, obelisks and huge stone sphinxes littered the seafloor. Curiously, half a dozen columns carved in the Egyptian style had markings dating back to Ramses II, nearly a millennium before Alexandria was founded. The Greek rulers who built Alexandria had taken ancient Egyptian monuments from along the Nile to provide gravitas for their nouveau riche city.

The Scrolls appear to be the library of a Jewish sect. The library was hidden away in caves around the outbreak of the First Jewish Revolt (A.D. 66-70) as the Roman army advanced against the rebel Jews.

Excellent find. The history of the Library of Alexandria has always intrigued, saddened, and angered me. What a wonderful vault of ancient knowledge completely destroyed for no justifiable reason. Humans and their destructive nature is infuriating. There's no telling what literary wonders and historical records were lost in its destruction. It is great, however, they may have at least found the site.

Undeniable proof of Jesus' existence, no doubt!

the Vatican probably holds a significant amount of the content from the library.