There was no cataclysmic destruction of the Library of Alexandria. It declined slowly over several centuries. Wikipedia gives a decent overview. (https://en.wik

There was no cataclysmic destruction of the Library of Alexandria. It declined slowly over several centuries. Wikipedia gives a decent overview. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library_of_Alexandria https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library_of_Alexandria) Jean-Yves Empereur discusses the archaeological evidence in "The destruction of the Library of Alexandria: An archaeological viewpoint" in the edited volume What Happened to the Ancient Library of Alexandria? (2008). In that same volume, Qassem Abdou Qassem and Bernard Lewis each discuss the origin of the quote mentioned above and dispute its authenticity.