Washington sentinel., 1898-05-07
Rhe Pharos OF Alexandria.
Century Magazine


for lighthouse, Pkays, fare, look
back to the prototype OF all light
houses, PtolemY's tower oil Alex
andria. Its place among the won
ders may be in some dispute; but
If natural right is to decide, there
can be no question, for it combines
all the claims. 1t was at once
unique, grand and useful. On the
score OF serving pre- eminentlY a
practical purpose, 1t stands indeed
alone among its collie agues. The
idea of a lighthouse was a develop
ment out Of the beacon fires which
in TemOter antiquity, were often
kept burning at the entrance har-
bors to guide belated ships Such
we hear of at the mouth Of the
Pir9us harbor, and on Sigeum, at
the entrance Of the Dardanelles.
In Homer's time, the mariner over
taken by the night was glad to
steer his craft by any chance watch
fire cleaning on the shore. SO
the Had xix, 375) has it: "Or
as when, or the sea, there cometh
to the sailors eyes the CLEAN OF
burning fire. There it IS, burning
on high among the mountains in
some lonely camp, while they,
against their will, are being carried
by the storm blasts over the sea,
the home of fishes, tar from them
they love"
In classical times, fleets of war
ships, sailing in the night, followed
the beacon light blazing on the
prows of the admirals ships; but
this was practised only in emer-
gencies; for when the night was
dark ships sought harbOr, il they
could. The trips from port to port
in the Kgean were usually short,
and navigation was mostly day
light work. In the second decade
OF the third century B c., Ptolemy
Softer, Alexander S famous general,
then King Of Egypt. began the
construction of the great Pharos
tower; and it was completed about
asa b. c. under his successor PtOl-
emy Philadelphus. Sostratus Of
Cnidus was the architect; and,
the story goes, he carved his name
as the builder, deep upon its stones,
then plastered il over, and set the
Kings name in the more transient
material. The story may not be
true; but, at any rate, future ages
read upon the stone the plain in
scriptIon: "Sostratus Of Cnidus to
the rescuing gods, in behalf OF
those who sail the seas" The
stories told about its size both in
antiquity and in the middle ages,
has the bounds OF the credible.
Each OF its four sides was said to
measure at the base a stade-about
six hundred feet. 1t was built OF
a white stone, in many stories, each
narrowing toward the top. Its
upper story had large openings
towards the sea, through which the
light Of the great pitchwood fires
cleaned out upon the treacherous
approaches to the harbor Far off
at sea it could be seen, lifting itself
like a planet in the sky, hours be-
fore the low coast OF the Delta
could be deserted; hence Statius's
verse:
Lumiaa noctigagos toHH PEayos asmala
ZHNe.
Josephus claims the light could
be seen three hundred stades, j. c.
over thirty miles out, at sea. The
statement that the tower was over
FIVE hundred feet high is made by
at least two late authors, but that
is too much to believe. That it's
construction cost eight hundred
talents (Ptolemaic), or well over a
million dollars, is vouched for on
the best authority; and this alone
proves that. with skilled labor at
20 cents a Cay, no mean building
was likely to result.
The island Of Pharos, on the
eastern end OF which it was built,
and from which il and all light
houses Of the Roman world after il
were named, was separated from
mainland, on which Alexander
founded his city. by a half mile or
more OF shallow water. A wide
mole, the heptastadion, bultto Join
the island and the land, has since
grown into a wide neck Of land.
bearing the present Mohammedan
Quarter of Alexandra. The exact
spot where the famous lighthouse
stood can no longer be determined.
Perhaps it is covered by the pres
ent Fort Kait Bal; more likely IT is
a thousand feet or more to the east,
and now covered by the sea. The
structure remained standing down
into the fourteenth century Of our
era, and then disappeared from
mention. But it had done its work.
For sixteen centuries it had guided
to land the wandering craft OF the
Egean; but, better than that, its
example had gone out into all the
lands. In Pliny's time already it
had begotten many SUCCESSORS
two OF them famous ones, the one
at Ostia, and the other at Rave1na
and the generations Of its sue
cessors have been coming on ever
since.
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