page_title: Kõpu Lighthouse
section_title: Location and design
hierarchical_section_title: Kõpu Lighthouse / Location and design
caption_attribution_description: English: Stairs of Kõpu Lighthouse
context_page_description: Kõpu Lighthouse is one of the best known symbols and tourist sights on the Estonian island of Hiiumaa. It is one of the oldest lighthouses in the world, having been in continuous use since its completion in 1531. The lighthouse is quite unique with its shape and an exception among lighthouses because it has gone through all the stages from a medieval landmark up to a modern electrified lighthouse.
  The lighthouse marks the Hiiu Shoal and warns ships away from the shoreline. Light from Kõpu Lighthouse can be used for navigation as far as 26 nautical miles away.
  Kõpu Lighthouse was previously known under its Swedish name, Upper Dagerort lighthouse.
context_section_description: The lighthouse is built at the top of the highest hillock of Hiiumaa island, Tornimägi (English: Tower Hill, 68 metres (223 ft)). The height of the building itself is 37.7 metres (124 ft), and the light is 103.6 metres (340 ft) above sea level, making it the highest coastal light on the Baltic Sea.
  Kõpu Lighthouse has a shape of a square prism with massive buttresses in the directions of principal divisions of the compass. The tower is laid solely of stone up to the height of 24 metres (79 ft). The outside layer of the walls is supported by lime (and nowadays also cement) mortar, with the body itself built without mortar.
  The body of the tower contains roughly 5,000 cubic metres (6,500 cu yd) of stone, with its total weight reaching 12,000 tonnes (26,000,000 lb). Local limestone and glacial erratic stones were used as building material.
  Originally, the tower was solid stone without any rooms and no light was burned at it ; when it was equipped with light, the top of the lighthouse was reached using external wooden stairs, which were later replaced with iron ones. During reconstruction in the 1800s, a stairway and two rooms were cut into the tower.
caption: Stairway to the lighthouse
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