Changes

Jump to: navigation, search

How Was the Lighthouse of Alexandria Destroyed

10 bytes added, 21:14, 22 November 2018
m
insert middle ad
[[File: Kom el-Dika.jpg|300px|thumbnail|left|Ruins of the Roman Amphitheater in Alexandria]]
“For Egypt is difficult to enter by land, and the coast is almost harbourless. . . It is difficult even in peacetime for ships to approach the harbour of Alexandria; the entrance is narrow, and submerged rocks make a straight course impossible. The left side is shut in by artificial moles; on the right the island of Pharos lies off shore, and from this rises an enormous lighthouse whose fires are visible thirty-five miles away, warning visiting ships to anchor at night well away from the shore because of the difficulty of making port.” <ref> Josephus. <i> [https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0913573868/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0913573868&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=f5b83d2e6b5f8e95048b5b4745ac77f2 The Works of Josephus: Complete and Unabridged].</i> Translated by William Whiston. (Peabody, Massachusetts: Hendrickson, 1987), Book IV, 6043</ref>
 
<dh-ad/>
Besides demonstrating that the Lighthouse was functioning fully again about 100 years after Caesar’s campaign, Josephus’ passage relates that it was a true lighthouse, which used firewood as its source for light. Other ancient descriptions of the Lighthouse can be found on coins that were minted in Alexandria during the Roman period. The so-called “Pharos Coins,” which featured a depiction of the Lighthouse, were issued through the reigns of six emperors from Domitian through Marucs Auerilius and then again in the twenty-ninth year of Commodus. <ref> Handler, Susan. “Architecture on the Roman coins of Alexandria.” <i>American Journal of Archaeology</i> 75 (1971), p. 182</ref>

Navigation menu