23/05/2026
For over a thousand years, if you were lost at sea in the Mediterranean, one light told you where home was.
The Lighthouse of Alexandria stood between 100 and 140 meters high.
The lighthouse was built around 280 BC on the island of Pharos, just off the Alexandria coast. It used a mirror system — bronze, angled toward the sea — to reflect sunlight by day and fire by night.
Then in 1303 AD, a massive earthquake cracked its foundation. A second earthquake in 1323 finished it. The most famous lighthouse in history collapsed into the sea.
The stones didn't disappear. In the 15th century, the Mamluk Sultan Qaitbay built a military fortress on the exact same spot.
Did you know the citadel was built from the lighthouse's remains?