Of the seven wonders of the ancient world, only the Great Pyramid at Giza has survived the destructive hands of time, nature, and war. The Lighthouse of Alexandria, however, is set to enjoy a second lease of life.
Earlier this summer, archaeologists began hauling some of the giant granite blocks that once comprised one of the tallest buildings in the world out of the Alexandrian harbor after centuries underwater. Twenty-two blocks, to be precise, each one weighing between 80 and 90 tons with the operation requiring a boat, a platform, and a crane employing specific techniques to ensure the integrity of the blocks.
The excavation is the result of years of planning from the Pharos project, which is named for the islet at the mouth of the Nile on which the lighthouse once stood, and is led by researchers from France’s National Center for Scientific Research and Egypt’s Centre for Alexandrian Studies. Nearly six decades on from the ruins of the lighthouse first being identified by Kamel Abul Saadat, a local amateur diver and archaeologist, Pharos is working to create a digital replica of the 2,300-year-old structure.
“The discovery holds immense significance because the Lighthouse of Alexandria is a symbol of Hellenistic engineering and architecture,” CNRS researcher Thomas Faucher said over email. “Its rediscovery underwater provides access to the physical remains of this legendary monument, offering a unique opportunity to understand its construction and appearance.”
The recovery of blocks from the Lighthouse of Alexandria. Photo: © GEDEON Programmes / CEAlex.
The current phase builds off work started in the 1990s when the then-director of the Centre for Alexandrian Studies, Jean-Yves Empereur, was called in by the Egyptian authorities to conduct the first excavation of the Lighthouse of Alexandria. Thousands of architectural blocks were identified with the most important 100 or so scanned and forming the foundation of the database to which the Pharos project is now adding.
It’s an exercise of filling in gaps in the archeological record with the recent excavation uncovering the threshold stones, foundational paving slabs, and the giant lintels and upright blocks that once served as the entrance to the lighthouse. These will be scanned using photogrammetry, a process of stitching together thousands of images to create a 3D model, and added to the database. While the first blocks pulled from the Mediterranean Sea 30 years ago can be found at the Kom El Deka archaeological site, today’s efforts will be returned underwater for the sake of preservation.
The scans will be handed over to engineers and researchers, Faucher said, who will try to provide “as precise as possible of what the lighthouse looked like, both externally and internally” by virtually recreating the monument.
Copperplate engraving of the Lighthouse at Alexandria, Egypt, from Robert von Spalart’s Historical Picture of the Costumes of the Principal People of Antiquity and of the Middle Ages (1810). Photo: Florilegius / Universal Images Group via Getty Images.
This process is complicated by the fact there is no single version of the lighthouse but several. Initially commissioned by Ptolemy I, who ruled the city following the death of Alexander the Great, the Lighthouse was completed by Ptolemy II in 247 B.C.E. Aside from minor alterations, the 330-foot tower stood for 1,000 years outlasting the Ptolemaic dynasty until earthquakes in the 8th and 10th centuries damaged its structure. Restorations by the Fatimids in the 12th century added an Islamic dome, but further seismic activity proved terminal with the site turned into a defensive fortress by the Mamluks in the 15th century.
The virtual reconstruction will attempt to present both the classical and medieval versions of the lighthouse. No small task.
Credit: Artnet
