One of the Seven Ancient World Wonders was the Lighthouse of Alexandria, which was situated on the island of Pharos. It was one of the centers of civilization of the world and the lighthouse performed the task of showing the way to sailors who crossed the tricky harbor. Actually Pharos wasn’t an island in real sense; rather the Heptastadion connected it with the mainland.
The idea of the Lighthouse of Alexandria originated in the mind of Ptolemy Soter, who was in command of Egypt after Alexander the Great died. In 290 BC, Ptolemy made the first move towards the construction of the lighthouse. However, the project wasn’t easy and he couldn’t survive to see its completion. It was finally completed by his son Ptolemy Philadelphus. Sostratus was the important architect on the project and he took care of the minute details.
The Lighthouse of Alexandria was a large building and comprised of three parts. One part was built over another with the lowest part being square-shaped with a height of 183.4 feet. The centre of the lighthouse was octagonal-shaped with a height of 90 feet. Finally, the top part was cylindrical-shaped with a height of 24 feet. In total, the overall height of the Lighthouse of Alexandria was around 384 feet. This height would easily surpass the height of any forty-storage building in today’s world.
The base of the lighthouse consisted of a cylinder which went till the top and was used for the purpose of carrying the fuel required for lightening the fire at the top. At night, this fire used to come to rescue of all people who passed by it. A mirror of the Lighthouse of Alexandria did the same thing by reflecting the sunlight during the daytime.