3The Royal Library of Baghdad, Iraq
The Royal Library of Baghdad, also known as the House of Wisdom, was one of the most significant intellectual centers of the Islamic Golden Age. Founded in the 9th century, it housed thousands of manuscripts covering various fields of knowledge, from science to literature. During the Mongol invasion of Baghdad in 1258, the library was destroyed, and its contents were thrown into the Tigris River. The destruction of the House of Wisdom marked a severe blow to the preservation and transmission of knowledge in the medieval Islamic world.
