I lost entire photo library in iPhoto.  How do I retrieve the lost library?

I went to open iPhoto only to find my entire photo library was gone.  I have no idea how this has happened.  I backed up my photos on an external hard drive but cannot access them that way.  I keep getting a message saying it's a backed up version and I have to hit "option" while I open iPhoto.  That is not working either.  How can I find these lost photos?

I keep getting a message saying it's a backed up version and I have to hit "option" while I open iPhoto.
What kind of backup of your library do you have?  If it is aTime Machine backup, see this document:
iPhoto '11: Restoring from Time Machine with iPhoto '11 (9.2 or later) and OS X Lion 10.7.2 (or later) - Apple Support
I went to open iPhoto only to find my entire photo library was gone.  I have no idea how this has happened.
What did you do, before this happened?  Have you been updating or upgrading software?  Moved your iPhoto Library to a new location on external drives?
Have there been crashes? which version of iPhoto or MacOS X do you have?

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