the Abbey Library of Saint Gall in Switzerland
Radcliffe Camera in Oxford, England
Iwaki Museum of Picture Books for Children in Iwaki, Japan
Al-Qarawiyyin Mosque and University in Fes, Morocco
the main reading room of the Library of Congress in Washington DC
an aerial view of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Alexandria, Egypt
a library on the beach in France
a play area for children at a resort in Thailand
public library in Stuttgart Germany
the interior of the Vatican Secret Archives in Vatican City
children reading in the Muyinga Library in Burundi
library of Celus in Turkey
Epos floating library in Norway
Mertz Library in The New York Botanical Garden in New York City
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Ninth-century illuminated manuscripts and the earliest known architectural plan drawn on parchment are just some of the literary treasures at the resplendent 1,200-year-old Baroque-style Convent of St Gall in Switzerland.
Photograph by Heeb/laif/Redux

14 Epic Libraries Around the World

Calling all bookworms.

ByCaitlin Etherton
September 15, 2017

A cab driver once told me that, at the age of eight, he walked 10 miles from his Egyptian hometown in search of a private library rumored to have a copy of Nizar Qabbani’s Arabian Love Poems. Disregarding Washington D.C.'s late-night club-goers jaywalking outside the taxi, he drove me home swooning, reciting verses from another book he’d discovered on that journey—Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet.

A good library is always worth the trip for what we might find there, whether it is 10 miles away or 10 countries away, whether the books are two inches high or two stories high, whether they arrive via donkey, camel, boat, or bike. And while any library can lead us to a new literary discovery, the following 14 epic libraries around the globe take typical book appreciation to a whole new level.

Caitlin Etherton is a poet and farmer currently based in Richmond, Virginia.

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