Ephesus - Library of Celsus

In a small square lying below street-level in Ephesus is the imposing two-story facade of the Library of Celsus with its rather crowded columns and prominent cornices (re-erected in 1970-78 by Austrian archeologists). The library itself, which was entirely faced with colored marble was of three storys, with colonnades around the lower two. Along the rear wall was a series of rectangular niches for holding parchment books and scrolls. Below the central niche is a grave-chamber with the Sarcophagus of Titus Julius Celsus Polemaeanus, Governor of the province of Asia, in whose honor his son built the library in the early A.D. second century.