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Concept
Lighthouse of Alexandria
Summary
The Lighthouse of Alexandria, sometimes called the Pharos of Alexandria (ˈfɛərɒs ; ho Pháros tês Alexandreías, contemporary Koine ho pháros tɛ̂ːs aleksandrěːaːs; فنار الإسكندرية), was a lighthouse built by the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Ancient Egypt, during the reign of Ptolemy II Philadelphus (280–247 BC). It has been estimated to have been at least in overall height. One of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, for many centuries it was one of the tallest man-made structures in the world.
The lighthouse was severely damaged by three earthquakes between 956 and 1323 AD and became an abandoned ruin. It was the third-longest surviving ancient wonder, after the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus and the extant Great Pyramid of Giza, surviving in part until 1480, when the last of its remnant stones were used to build the Citadel of Qaitbay on the site.
In 1994, a team of French archaeologists dove into the water of Alexandria's Eastern Harbour and discovered some remains of the lighthouse on the sea floor. In 2016 the Ministry of State of Antiquities in Egypt had plans to turn submerged ruins of ancient Alexandria, including those of the Pharos, into an underwater museum.
TOC
Pharos was a small island located on the western edge of the Nile Delta. In 332 BC Alexander the Great founded the city of Alexandria on an isthmus opposite Pharos. Alexandria and Pharos were later connected by a mole spanning more than , which was called the Heptastadion ("seven stadia"—a stadion was a Greek unit of length measuring approximately 180 m).
The etymology of “Pharos” is uncertain. The word became generalized in modern Greek (φάρος ‘fáros’), and was borrowed by Italian and Spanish (‘faro’) and French (‘phare’).
The east side of the mole became the Great Harbour, now an open bay; on the west side lay the port of Eunostos, with its inner basin Kibotos now vastly enlarged to form the modern harbour. Today's city development lying between the present Grand Square and the modern Ras el-Tin quarter is built on the silt which gradually widened and obliterated this mole.
Official source
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