In 1994 French divers in Alexandria’s murky eastern harbor found nearly 50-ton granite blocks, sphinxes, and columns from the Pharos lighthouse, one of the Seven Wonders. The Nile Delta coast was flat and hard to see from sea, its waters full of reefs, and legend says islanders on Pharos lit false fires to wreck ships. After Alexander the Great founded Alexandria in 332 BC, Ptolemy I Soter took Egypt, declared himself king in 305 BC, built a 1,200 meter causeway to the island, and commissioned the lighthouse, which Ptolemy II finished. It cost 800 talents of silver, about a tenth of the treasury, and rose an estimated 103 to 118 meters in square, octagonal, and cylindrical stages, with stone hauled from Wadi Hammamat in the eastern desert.

The Roman writer Lucian records how the architect, Sostratus of Knidos, carved his own dedication in stone, covered it with plaster, and inscribed King Ptolemy’s name on top, knowing the sea air would eventually expose his. A 12th century traveler described a spiral ramp wide enough for two horsemen, likely so animals could haul fuel. Earthquakes did the damage: 956 CE took off the top 20 meters, and a 1303 quake centered near Crete finished it. Ibn Battuta could still enter it in 1326 but found only rubble in 1349. In 1480 Sultan Qaitbay built his citadel from the ruins, and the name survives in faro, phare, and farol, and in the words for car headlights.

• The 10th century legend of a Byzantine spy who tricked a caliph into digging for treasure under the foundations
• A polished bronze mirror by day, a fire by night, and statues of Triton at the four corners
• Why diving the site had to wait for military clearance and sonar that could see through polluted water
• The more than 3,300 architectural pieces mapped in the harbor and threshold stones raised in 2025 for a digital rebuild
• Copies of its form, from a tomb at Abusir to the George Washington Masonic National Memorial in Virginia