A lighthouse submerged

By Amal Hewavissenti

The wonder of the massive lighthouse of Alexandria was that its lamp remained ablaze continually every night for 1675 years before it finally came down into the depths of Mediterranean sea. When it was built in 270 BC, it earned a fame to be the sole lighthouse in the world and became the most towering human creation that rose straight out of the sea.

With the height of 600 feet, the lighthouse falls in the mould of other impressive constructions such as the Pyramids of Pharaohs during the period. However, it enjoys the record breaking performance to have guided mariners of the world for the longest period of time.

Alexandria cities

Alexander the Great of Macedonia was probably the most prominent and greatest soldier of the ancient world who possessed a vast empire stretching from Greece to India. In the course of his imperial expansion, he named seventeen cities as Alexandria after he conquered them. The most famous Alexandria city is the one built in Egypt on the Mediterranean shores.

Even though the other 16 Alexandria cities did not survive a wave of battles and emergence of mini kingdoms, the city of Alexandria established in Egypt is an important city even today. Alexander the Great established this city on the Mediterranean shores about 20 kilometres west of Nile Delta.

The river Nile by this time had been a highly cruised waterway through which a large number of sail ships travelled daily across Egypt. The city which had been created some 16 feet above the sea level proved to be well immune against any threat of tsunami or tridal wave of any type.

Ptolemys

Ptolemy Soter who succeeded Alexander the Great in 324 BC, practically brought prosperity to the city of Alexandria and made it a centre of international commerce. Meanwhile, tragedy struck the ships that happened to be seriously damaged by the rocks underneath the sea off Alexandria when they were approaching the city by night.

As reports of shipwrecks made it an internationally hazardous area, King Ptolemy Soter sensed the blemish it would create on the reputation of the city. The sailors got frightened by the rumours about the busy harbour of Alexandria which told that any ship bound to the city's harbour would be ashed to pieces against the rocks underwater.

King Ptolemy Soter assembled his counsellors and spelled out the urgent need to construct a light house to avert the blemish on the city and the harbour the life of the island's economy. The ruler of the city was of firm conviction that the lighthouse should preserve the identity of the city and the colossal structure should be raised on the island of Pharos near Alexandria.

After a preliminary discussion with the architects, the ruler commanded a huge tower with a lamp and against mirror to reflect the lamp's light be built on the island of Pharos. The tower with a huge lamp and a mirror saw the completion after 20 years and So Stratus the chief architect in this project was awarded special state honours.

The lighthouse

During 1990s, marine archaeologists discovered huge granite cubes submerged in the deep sea off the coast of Alexandria. As the stone cubes were too heavy to be hauled up from the sea bed, they examined the sea bed using satellite technology. Soon they realised that the stone cubes were those of the light house built some 2,300 years previously.

According to the 10th century records kept by Idrishi Ibn Al - Sheik and Yusuf Ibn Al - Sheik, the Alexandria lighthouse was a huge tower comparable to a multi-storeyed building of 600 feet in height. These Muslim explorers were brothers who had witnessed the lighthouse and called it a wonder creation of man.

Rather than being a single tower, the lighthouse was a combination of huge buildings one atop the other in three terraces.

The walls were made of granite cubes bound with splinters of marble and with a special plaster made of powder of lead and lime, according to the Muslim brothers. One side of the lighthouse was 150 feet in length. On the top level was a cylindrical tower. A huge mirror and the lamp had been fixed in a special compartment on this cylindrical structure. A statue of Poseidon, the god of the sea had been planted on the roof of the compartment.

"King Ptolemy II had built a special path from Alexandria to the island of Pharos to transport the foodstuff, fuel to keep the lamp lit and other requisites for the working staff which had numbered to thousand" (Idrishi Ibn Al-Sheik and Yusuf Ibn Al-Sheik).

The extremely polished bronze mirror reflected the light of the lamp in the form of a great fire on the top of the lighthouse. The Sheik brothers had seen the fabulous views which the top of the tower commanded - specially the view of the city of Constantinople located a hundred miles away.

Marine archaeologists have discovered fragments of statues lying scattered in the seabed around Alexandria. However a powerful earthquake appears to have demolished this wondrous human creation.