Hadrian's Library

Founded by the emperor Hadrian around 132 AD, this large enclosure just north of the Roman Agora combined a library with reading rooms, lecture halls and a landscaped inner courtyard framed by a hundred columns. Papyrus scrolls were stored in niches along the eastern wall, where the main library block once stood. Over the centuries the complex was overbuilt with early Christian churches, whose foundations remain visible amid the excavated ruins. A monumental facade of Corinthian columns along Areos Street preserves the original entrance.