The whispering whizz of mowing scythes startled sleepy birds nesting near the ancient Nile Delta. Workers harvested the papyrus plant quickly and efficiently, before the unbearable heat of the Egyptian sun turned the labor into an even bigger nightmare. The fibers of these plants were to be converted into a valuable writing material similar to paper by expert papyrus makers.
In the 2nd century bc, King Ptolemy V promptly ordered craftsmen to stop exporting one of their treasured national products. The reason was as simple and mundane as jealousy. A rival library in Pergamon, in Mysia (now western Turkey), had gained enough traction to greatly annoy the king, who wanted to protect the fame and power of his Great Library of Alexandria at all costs.