Lighthouse of Alexandria

Name: Lighthouse of Alexandria
Start: -0280
End: -0247
Location: Pharos island, Alexandria

c. 280 BC–247 BC · Pharos island, Alexandria · Africa · Science

A 100-metre lighthouse that stood for over 1,500 years

Lighthouse of Alexandria — Prof. Hermann Thiersch (1874–1939) · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

Under Ptolemy II a lighthouse at least 100 metres tall rose on the island of Pharos, for centuries one of the tallest structures on Earth. Only earthquakes between 956 and 1303 brought the wonder down, and the island's name became the word for lighthouse in many languages.

State: Ptolemaic Kingdom

Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 3rd century BC

Did you know

French phare and Italian and Spanish faro are all the name of one Egyptian island. Pharos, off Alexandria, gave its name to the lighthouse that stood on it, and that lighthouse to lighthouses in many languages. Share →

Meanwhile around the world (±25 years)

Asia

c. 261 BC Kalinga War — 19 years later

Americas

c. 300 BC Maya script — 20 years earlier
c. 300 BC–150 El Mirador, capital of the Preclassic Maya — 20 years earlier

Alive at the time

Archimedes (aged 7)
Euclid (aged 45)
Ashoka (aged 24)
Qu Yuan (aged 60)
Arsinoe II (aged 36)