How today one of the wonders of the world looks - the Alexandria lighthouse

The Lighthouse of Alexandria, or Faros, was laid by Alexander the Great after the conquest of Egypt in the 4th century BC. Built in 283 under Ptolemy II, having a height of about 120 meters, the lighthouse became one of the grandest structures of the Ancient World. However, having stood for almost 2000 years, the lighthouse was still destroyed, and here is what this place looks like now.

At one time, the lighthouse stood on the island of Faros, but already in our time the coastline in this area has changed and the island was connected to the rest of the land, becoming just a semicircular bay of Alexandria.

In the XV century, the order of the destroyed lighthouse, which by that time was about a quarter of its original height, was finally demolished by the Sultan Kait-Bey, and in its place a fortress was built from the stones of the lighthouse, which stands on this site now.

The fortress is visible on the other side of the bay

There used to be a sea on the site of this embankment.

Some of the stones that make up the fortress used to be part of the lighthouse

From this side, the entrance to the Maritime Museum

Let me remind you that of the 7 ancient wonders of the world, only the pyramids were preserved, 2 hours drive from Alexandria, only the foundation remained from the mausoleum in Halicarnassus, only the ruins of the temple in Olympia where it used to be remained from the golden statue of Zeus Olympus. From the temple of Artemis near Ephesus and the Colossus of Rhodes there were only places where they stood. And the gardens of Babylon in modern Iraq - it’s not even clear where they were, there is only a supposed place.