We're looking up into the high ceiling between the pillars and the façade of the Library of Celsus in Turkey. The ancient Roman library stood for less than 150 years before an earthquake, and possibly fires, destroyed it in 262 CE. While it was intact, the Library of Celsus stored approximately 12,000 scrolls and was the third-largest library in the ancient world. Today, the ruins are open to visitors interested in taking a walk through the remnants of the building and surrounding structures of the ancient city of Ephesus.
The Library of Celsus is an ancient Roman building in Ephesus, Anatolia, now part of Selçuk, Turkey. It was built in honour of the Roman Senator Tiberius Julius Celsus Polemaeanus, completed between circa 114–117 CE by Celsus' son, Gaius Julius Aquila. The library was "one of the most impressive buildings in the Roman Empire" and built to store 12,000 scrolls and to serve as a mausoleum for Celsus, who is buried in a crypt beneath the library in a decorated marble sarcophagus. The Library of Celsus was the "third-largest library in the ancient world" behind both Alexandria and Pergamum.