Is facebook based on php? How to learn building a website like that?

[David D]

Facebook does appear to use PHP, although there is no way to be certain (since it is possible to set up a server to use URLs that include '.php' without using PHP).

Its nothing special in terms of web programming, so any (good) collection of books that teach HTML, CSS, a server side programming language, HTTP and maybe JavaScript will do the job.

The author might have got a basic implementation done within a week, but it has had a lot of work since then. The author wouldn't have used purely PHP - while that will handle the decision making processes, you also need a database to store the data, HTML to describe it, CSS to present it and HTTP to transport it to the client.