The oldest discovered library in the world is the Royal Library of the ancient Kingdom of Ebla, located near Mardikh in Syria. It dates back to around 2500–2250 BCE and was discovered by archaeologists from the University of Rome La Sapienza between 1974 and 1976. This library contained about 2,000 intact clay tablets, over 4,000 fragments, and more than 10,000 smaller pieces. Notably, the tablets were intentionally organized and categorized by topic, size, form, and content, representing the earliest known systematical classification and cataloging of texts.

While the Royal Library of Ashurbanipal in ancient Nineveh (Iraq) was long considered the oldest large royal library (built around 668 BCE with some 30,000 tablets), the Ebla library predates it by nearly two millennia.

Thus, the Royal Library of Ebla is recognized as the oldest discovered library in the world.