French phare and Italian and Spanish faro are all the name of one Egyptian island.

280 BC

Pharos, off Alexandria, gave its name to the lighthouse that stood on it, and that lighthouse to lighthouses in many languages.

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The event

• Lighthouse of Alexandriac. 280 BC–247 BC · Pharos island, Alexandria. 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.

3rd century BC

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