Alexandrian Museum, also called Alexandrian the Museum, or Museum Of of Alexandria, Greek Mouseion ,(“Seat of the Muses”)ancient centre of classical learning at Alexandria in Egypt. A research institute that was especially noted for its scientific and literary scholarship, the Alexandrian Museum was built near the royal palace either by Ptolemy II Philadelphus about 280 BC or by his father Ptolemy I Soter (reigned 323–285/283 BC). The best surviving description of the Museum museum is by the Greek geographer and historian Strabo, who mentions that it was a large complex of buildings and gardens with richly decorated lecture and banquet halls linked by porticos, or colonnaded walks. It was organized in faculties with a president-priest at the head; the salaries of the scholars on the staff were paid by the Egyptian king and later by the Roman emperor. The renowned Library of Alexandria formed a part of the Museummuseum. In AD 272 the buildings of the Museum museum were destroyed in the civil war under the Roman emperor Aurelian, although the educational and research functions of the institution seem to have continued until the 5th century. See also Alexandria, Library of.