After 1,600 years underwater, remains of the Lighthouse of Alexandria emerge

https://www.earth.com/news/after-1600-years-underwater-remains-of-the-lighthouse-of-alexandria-emerge/

32 Comments

  1. ReasonablyBadass on

    I sometimes fantasize we will find a ship with sealed amphorae containing backups of the library… 

  2. This may sound ignorant but I completely forgot there was a Lighthouse *and* Library of Alexandria that were both destroyed.

  3. Entire-Jellyfish4093 on

    The fact that so many of yall have never heard of the Lighthouse of Alexandria is shocking to me… Literally one of the most famous structures ever built

  4. I hate articles written for earth.com; the titles are always the worst clickbait. They didn’t just emerge after 1,600 years, they have been lifted out. 

  5. Winter_Swan5104 on

    I tried to use that page but fuuuuuu that. That site is not a serious site now is it? OP has to be working for that page.

  6. Imaginary-Ad-7919 on

    Hard to wrap my head around the fact that ancient engineers built something so iconic that even its ruins still feel legendary.

  7. For people surprised about the age:

    As far as we know this was the first Lighthouse humans built. It was called “pharos” because it was built on the island of pharos.
    Pharos then literally became the word for Lighthouse in greek language.

    It got heavily damaged in earthquakes during late roman and early medieval times. Then late medieval most of its stone was repurposed to build a sea castle to protect against the turks which still stands at the harbour today.

    Source: Class i took at university

  8. This is so awesome.

    I find it so fascinating to just think about the fact that so, so many lifetimes ago, this tower was there, and people were in awe of it from 250 BC all the way *to the middle ages*. It was in use for over 1500 years!

  9. penguin_cheezus on

    This is so sick man. I always felt this weird regret that so many cool structures of the past were lost by natural disasters or acts of men. The Library, the Colossus of Rhodes, the city of Troy?? Not just their historical value, but the knowledge and techniques both stored and used to build such structures would be so cool to know. At least these stones can help us figure out what the lighthouse used to be

  10. Hope they will eventually find Cleopatra’s supposed tomb too. If it was indeed in Alexandria.

  11. What irks me is whenever a website reports on something genuinely exciting they never show you any pictures, diagrams or photos of the things they are describing.

    Yet whenever something tragic and unthinkable happens they are all LOOK AT THIS GROSS BLURRY BLOODIED PHOTOS OF WHAT HAPPENED.

  12. Fun fact, in French the word lighthouse is “phare” because the Alexandria tower was located on the island of Faros and known as the Faros tower.

    Basically in French all lighthouses are named after the one in Alexandria and not the other way around, and it’s a pleonasm when we say “le phare d’Alexandrie”

  13. Does anyone have anything to contribute that isn’t a stupid joke?
    This is actually really cool.