Where is the lighthouse of alexandria
The Lighthouse of Alexandria: One of the Ancient World's Most Impressive Buildings
hello everybody welcome back to a brand
new episode of mega projects this one is
all about
a big old lighthouse it might be not so
impressive in terms of modern day mega
projects but in the past
this was a big deal so let's get into it
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now it's easy to look around the world
at the extraordinary mega projects we
have today
but what of those that are no longer
standing what once stood imposingly
on the shores of alexandria in egypt was
considered one of the
original seven wonders of the world a
towering human achievement
gazing out across the mediterranean sea
its furnace
guiding ships through many a night the
lighthouse of alexandria
is now but a memory but for many
centuries it was one of the tallest
man-made structures
anywhere in the world estimated to have
been between 100 and 140 metres tall
adorned with a giant statue it must have
been a dazzling sight to ancient eyes
the term bucket list is quite a modern
phrase used to describe
places to visit or things to do before
you die and indeed
often bucket list things come up on mega
projects mentioned in one of the last
videos recent one at least
about going on the trans-siberian that's
a bucket list item for me but while the
term may be modern a list of must-see
places stretches back to the ancient
world the original bucket list was the
seven wonders of the world a collection
of awe-inspiring sites compiled by
ancient writers herodotus calamarcus of
cyrene
antipater of sidon and filio of
byzantium the list included the great
pyramid of giza the hanging gardens of
babylon the colossus of rhodes the
temple at artemis the statue of zeus at
olympia the mausoleum
at halikanasis and finally of course
the lighthouse of alexandria these were
the original mega projects that drew
ancient travelers from
far and wide eager to gaze at their
glorious splendor sadly only one of
these wonders still stands today the
great pyramid of giza but these wonders
deserve to be remembered because they
quite simply laid the foundations for
what humans would construct thousands of
years
later and i will mention people have
been asking about the pyramids in the
comments whether it's something i will
cover
on mega projects but i've done a whole
video about the whole region
of the pyramids on my channel geographic
so i felt like it would be
repeating it quite a bit but if you just
search on youtube geographic's pyramids
you will find a video from me about
pyramids
so there you go but enough about the
other six wonders of the world let's
focus
on the last one to be constructed
what was built at alexandria was by no
means the first lighthouse in the world
but was certainly
the most impressive one of the oldest
was a fenari on the greek island
vicaria which was built in the 6th
century bc
with a very modest height of just 2.5
meters in
athens around the port the remains of
several ancient lighthouses have been
discovered some dating
from the 5th century bc so no
lighthouses were certainly not something
that was new but the world had never
seen one
as extraordinary as what appeared off
the egyptian coast
yeah the other ones were like how big is
it worse a little bit taller than a man
how big is this one absolutely massive
the lighthouse of alexandria built
sometime in the third century bc was the
second to last of the seven wonders to
be constructed coming over 2800 years
after the first
the great pyramid of giza the city of
alexandria was founded by alexander the
great in 332
bc on the shores of the mediterranean
sea and opposite a tiny island known as
pharos
in modern-day egypt the city quickly
grew into a regional powerhouse
and a center for trade and learning its
great library was thought to hold the
most comprehensive records of the
ancient world
that was until julius caesar ordered his
fleeing troops to set fire to ships in
the harbor in 48 bc
the resulting blaze not only decimated
the city but also destroyed the library
taking with it an estimated 40 000
scrolls after alexander the great died
in 323 bc he was eventually succeeded by
ptolemy the first sota
in 305 bc who quickly commissioned the
construction
of the mighty lighthouse on the small
island opposite the city now there is a
legend
that those who lived on ferris were
wreckers people who would lure ships
onto the rocks before
pillaging their remains and it was
because of this that the site was chosen
now this is something that's really
impossible to confirm or deny but
it's a good twist to the story
nevertheless however the name of this
small island and what was eventually
built on it
has transcended the ages the name pharas
went on to form the base for the greek
word for lighthouse
and most romance languages still use
this form today the french
have their while the italians and
spanish use
pharaoh while the lighthouse no doubt
served the very practical purpose of
guiding ships through the dangerous
reefs and into alexandria's busy harbor
there's no doubt it was also built to
provide a great deal of prestige
you don't build the second highest
structure in the world with enormous
statue on top of it
unless you really want it to be seen and
in case you were wondering the great
pyramid of giza was 139
metres tall and while we're not sure
about the exact height of the lighthouse
it's generally believed
to have been at the most 39 meters
shorter
than the pyramid so coming in at about
100 meters a lighthouse would have been
also seen as a great symbol of power
their location and difficulty to build
them meant that the completed lighthouse
at alexandria would have acted as a
dominant show of intent for the new
ruler however ptolemy the first sota
did not live to see its completion and
the 12-year construction project was
completed during the reign of his son
ptolemy ii philadelphus records show it
cost 8
000 talents of silver to build and
italian was a unit of measurement first
introduced in mesopotamia around 4000 bc
now a single talent would have been
26 kilograms meaning that the entire
lighthouse
was paid for with about 208 tons of
silver very roughly that's about 100
million dollars with today's value of
silver but that really doesn't mean very
much it's
just sort of just an interesting fact
according to records from the time the
lighthouse was built with solid blocks
of limestone though
some have questioned whether such weight
could have been supported one
alternative may have been
pink granite which was found nearby and
would have provided a much lighter
option
parts of the building were certainly
constructed using blocks of sandstone
which have been
examined recently and found to have come
from the wada hamamat quarries to
the east of the city
getting an accurate description of the
lighthouse is not always easy simply
because
it no longer exists and accounts of it
often vary
however one traveler in particular took
the time to carefully describe it in his
work and
this perhaps provides the best that we
can really hope for
abu hagag josef ibben muhammad el
balawi el andalosi and
let's just call him balawi from now on
visited this lighthouse
in 1163 a.d nearly 1005
years after it was constructed malawi
described an inner ramp leading into the
lighthouse's base area measuring 189
centimeters wide enough space to allow
two horsemen
to pass at once he put the square base
area at 30 meters by 30 meters and
it was spread over four floors the
second floor had 18 rooms the third 14
rooms and the fourth
had 17 rooms from this base area the
lighthouse rose to its full height of at
least 100 meters but
could be broken into three sections the
lowest and largest was
rectangular while the second and third
were cylindrical
a broad spiral staircase rose up from
the base through the three sections
which were
said to lean slightly inwards probably
to add some structural stability
above the third section stood a large
mirror possibly made from polished
bronze which reflected sunlight during
the day but at night
a furnace was lit probably using oil
there is
however some debate as to whether the
furnace was used from the start as there
are no records of it from early writers
now it's impossible to say how effective
the lighthouse was as a way of
preventing naval accidents but
interestingly
as many as 40 ancient sea wrecks have
been found in
or around alexandria's harbor so well
it wasn't very useful for those 40 guys
the lighthouse was topped with a statue
gazing out to sea now the identity of
the representation is mysterious with
some claiming it was a greek god
possibly zeus or poseidon others have
stated that it was of alexander the
great or even the king who commissioned
it
ptolemy the first sota again this is
probably something
we'll never have a definitive answer for
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had its builders and designers known
what we do today
about tectonic boundaries they might not
have chosen
this spot for a lighthouse the
combination of the african arabian and
red sea rift zones make this
a shaky place to build given where it
had been constructed the greatest
lighthouse the world had ever known was
always surviving on borrowed time
a series of earthquakes beginning in 796
a.d
badly damaged the lighthouse and
eventually brought this wonder of the
world
just crashing down the second earthquake
in 951 a.d led to significant cracks
appearing in the structure and five
years later
in 956 a.d as much as 20 meters of the
lighthouse collapsed
following yet another earthquake it
seems at this point that it was at least
partially rebuilt with an islamic style
dome replacing the statue above
it but two earthquakes in 1303 a.d and
1323 a.d
finished off this glorious monument once
and for all the 1303 a.d earthquake
originating in crete was
a particular beast believed to measure
more than eight on the richter scale
it also triggered a massive tsunami
which swept across the mediterranean
killing thousands including
many in alexandria itself it's not clear
whether the lighthouse
fell during the earthquake or because of
the tsunami waters
but well one thing is for certain and
that's that
its towering presence was just no more
what was left was said to resemble
nothing more than
a stub and in 1480 a.d the lighthouse of
alexandria finally
disappeared when the sultan of egypt
quake bay ordered a force to be
constructed on the island using some of
the fallen stones
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while we've known all along exactly
where it was it wasn't until a unesco
sponsored expedition in 1968 that the
remains of the lighthouse were
rediscovered in the waters
off of alexandria however due to the
ongoing political situation in egypt and
the lack of specialized equipment the
expedition was eventually abandoned
but in 1994 a group of french
archaeologists began examining what was
left of the ancient lighthouse on
the seabed of alexandria's eastern
harbour the finds included blocks of
granite between
49 and 60 tons 30 sphinx heads
and five obelisks which were the tall
tapered stone monuments typical from
ancient egypt there were also examples
of columns with engravings dating back
to ramesses ii who
ruled egypt between 1279 and 1213 bc
this was around 900 years before the
construction of the lighthouse but these
columns
may have been reused and re-incorporated
into its design
in total 3 300 pieces were catalogued by
the end of 1995 and 36 granite blocks
that
once made up the lighthouse now lie in
various museums around alexandria
but it is possible to scuba dive down to
see the ruins that remain with the
egyptian government still considering a
long-held plan to
turn the area into a historical
underwater park
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since 1978 there have been numerous
ideas put forward to rebuild the
lighthouse but
nothing has ever come of it there was
even some suggestion of building an
enormous skyscraper on the site but
thankfully most agreed that that would
have been
a bit of an eyesore it's clear that the
egyptian government wants to do
something with the area to commemorate
the lighthouse but due to political and
financial problems this
just never really happened but the
lighthouse still remains the symbol of
alexandria and it appears on both its
flag
and its official emblem the lighthouse
at alexandria is but a figment of our
imagination today albeit one that does
lie at the bottom of the harbour this
must have been a magnificent structure
to behold but its influence has gone
much further than its beam of light ever
did while it certainly wasn't the first
the lighthouse at alexandria set the
standard for
lighthouses around the world not only
that but as i mentioned earlier the very
word for lighthouse in the romance
languages
comes from this rocky outcrop off the
egyptian coast
this great monument of the ancient world
may no longer stand but
its influence and legacy is still
shining brightly today
so i really hope you found that video
interesting like i say it's a bit of a
different mega project an ancient mega
project if you liked it if you've got
suggestions
for other ancient mega projects well you
know what to do that's what the comments
below
are for so hit those up and uh and let
me know what you think of this video
what you'd like to see upload the ones
you like
all of that good stuff and i'll see you
next time
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