The Lighthouse of Alexandria: One of the Ancient World's Most Impressive Buildings

hello everybody welcome back to a brand new episode of mega projects this one is all about a big old lighthouse it might be not so impressive in terms of modern day mega projects but in the past this was a big deal so let's get into it [Music] now it's easy to look around the world at the extraordinary mega projects we have today but what of those that are no longer standing what once stood imposingly on the shores of alexandria in egypt was considered one of the original seven wonders of the world a towering human achievement gazing out across the mediterranean sea its furnace guiding ships through many a night the lighthouse of alexandria is now but a memory but for many centuries it was one of the tallest man-made structures anywhere in the world estimated to have been between 100 and 140 metres tall adorned with a giant statue it must have been a dazzling sight to ancient eyes the term bucket list is quite a modern phrase used to describe places to visit or things to do before you die and indeed often bucket list things come up on mega projects mentioned in one of the last videos recent one at least about going on the trans-siberian that's a bucket list item for me but while the term may be modern a list of must-see places stretches back to the ancient world the original bucket list was the seven wonders of the world a collection of awe-inspiring sites compiled by ancient writers herodotus calamarcus of cyrene antipater of sidon and filio of byzantium the list included the great pyramid of giza the hanging gardens of babylon the colossus of rhodes the temple at artemis the statue of zeus at olympia the mausoleum at halikanasis and finally of course the lighthouse of alexandria these were the original mega projects that drew ancient travelers from far and wide eager to gaze at their glorious splendor sadly only one of these wonders still stands today the great pyramid of giza but these wonders deserve to be remembered because they quite simply laid the foundations for what humans would construct thousands of years later and i will mention people have been asking about the pyramids in the comments whether it's something i will cover on mega projects but i've done a whole video about the whole region of the pyramids on my channel geographic so i felt like it would be repeating it quite a bit but if you just search on youtube geographic's pyramids you will find a video from me about pyramids so there you go but enough about the other six wonders of the world let's focus on the last one to be constructed what was built at alexandria was by no means the first lighthouse in the world but was certainly the most impressive one of the oldest was a fenari on the greek island vicaria which was built in the 6th century bc with a very modest height of just 2.5 meters in athens around the port the remains of several ancient lighthouses have been discovered some dating from the 5th century bc so no lighthouses were certainly not something that was new but the world had never seen one as extraordinary as what appeared off the egyptian coast yeah the other ones were like how big is it worse a little bit taller than a man how big is this one absolutely massive the lighthouse of alexandria built sometime in the third century bc was the second to last of the seven wonders to be constructed coming over 2800 years after the first the great pyramid of giza the city of alexandria was founded by alexander the great in 332 bc on the shores of the mediterranean sea and opposite a tiny island known as pharos in modern-day egypt the city quickly grew into a regional powerhouse and a center for trade and learning its great library was thought to hold the most comprehensive records of the ancient world that was until julius caesar ordered his fleeing troops to set fire to ships in the harbor in 48 bc the resulting blaze not only decimated the city but also destroyed the library taking with it an estimated 40 000 scrolls after alexander the great died in 323 bc he was eventually succeeded by ptolemy the first sota in 305 bc who quickly commissioned the construction of the mighty lighthouse on the small island opposite the city now there is a legend that those who lived on ferris were wreckers people who would lure ships onto the rocks before pillaging their remains and it was because of this that the site was chosen now this is something that's really impossible to confirm or deny but it's a good twist to the story nevertheless however the name of this small island and what was eventually built on it has transcended the ages the name pharas went on to form the base for the greek word for lighthouse and most romance languages still use this form today the french have their while the italians and spanish use pharaoh while the lighthouse no doubt served the very practical purpose of guiding ships through the dangerous reefs and into alexandria's busy harbor there's no doubt it was also built to provide a great deal of prestige you don't build the second highest structure in the world with enormous statue on top of it unless you really want it to be seen and in case you were wondering the great pyramid of giza was 139 metres tall and while we're not sure about the exact height of the lighthouse it's generally believed to have been at the most 39 meters shorter than the pyramid so coming in at about 100 meters a lighthouse would have been also seen as a great symbol of power their location and difficulty to build them meant that the completed lighthouse at alexandria would have acted as a dominant show of intent for the new ruler however ptolemy the first sota did not live to see its completion and the 12-year construction project was completed during the reign of his son ptolemy ii philadelphus records show it cost 8 000 talents of silver to build and italian was a unit of measurement first introduced in mesopotamia around 4000 bc now a single talent would have been 26 kilograms meaning that the entire lighthouse was paid for with about 208 tons of silver very roughly that's about 100 million dollars with today's value of silver but that really doesn't mean very much it's just sort of just an interesting fact according to records from the time the lighthouse was built with solid blocks of limestone though some have questioned whether such weight could have been supported one alternative may have been pink granite which was found nearby and would have provided a much lighter option parts of the building were certainly constructed using blocks of sandstone which have been examined recently and found to have come from the wada hamamat quarries to the east of the city getting an accurate description of the lighthouse is not always easy simply because it no longer exists and accounts of it often vary however one traveler in particular took the time to carefully describe it in his work and this perhaps provides the best that we can really hope for abu hagag josef ibben muhammad el balawi el andalosi and let's just call him balawi from now on visited this lighthouse in 1163 a.d nearly 1005 years after it was constructed malawi described an inner ramp leading into the lighthouse's base area measuring 189 centimeters wide enough space to allow two horsemen to pass at once he put the square base area at 30 meters by 30 meters and it was spread over four floors the second floor had 18 rooms the third 14 rooms and the fourth had 17 rooms from this base area the lighthouse rose to its full height of at least 100 meters but could be broken into three sections the lowest and largest was rectangular while the second and third were cylindrical a broad spiral staircase rose up from the base through the three sections which were said to lean slightly inwards probably to add some structural stability above the third section stood a large mirror possibly made from polished bronze which reflected sunlight during the day but at night a furnace was lit probably using oil there is however some debate as to whether the furnace was used from the start as there are no records of it from early writers now it's impossible to say how effective the lighthouse was as a way of preventing naval accidents but interestingly as many as 40 ancient sea wrecks have been found in or around alexandria's harbor so well it wasn't very useful for those 40 guys the lighthouse was topped with a statue gazing out to sea now the identity of the representation is mysterious with some claiming it was a greek god possibly zeus or poseidon others have stated that it was of alexander the great or even the king who commissioned it ptolemy the first sota again this is probably something we'll never have a definitive answer for [Music] had its builders and designers known what we do today about tectonic boundaries they might not have chosen this spot for a lighthouse the combination of the african arabian and red sea rift zones make this a shaky place to build given where it had been constructed the greatest lighthouse the world had ever known was always surviving on borrowed time a series of earthquakes beginning in 796 a.d badly damaged the lighthouse and eventually brought this wonder of the world just crashing down the second earthquake in 951 a.d led to significant cracks appearing in the structure and five years later in 956 a.d as much as 20 meters of the lighthouse collapsed following yet another earthquake it seems at this point that it was at least partially rebuilt with an islamic style dome replacing the statue above it but two earthquakes in 1303 a.d and 1323 a.d finished off this glorious monument once and for all the 1303 a.d earthquake originating in crete was a particular beast believed to measure more than eight on the richter scale it also triggered a massive tsunami which swept across the mediterranean killing thousands including many in alexandria itself it's not clear whether the lighthouse fell during the earthquake or because of the tsunami waters but well one thing is for certain and that's that its towering presence was just no more what was left was said to resemble nothing more than a stub and in 1480 a.d the lighthouse of alexandria finally disappeared when the sultan of egypt quake bay ordered a force to be constructed on the island using some of the fallen stones [Music] while we've known all along exactly where it was it wasn't until a unesco sponsored expedition in 1968 that the remains of the lighthouse were rediscovered in the waters off of alexandria however due to the ongoing political situation in egypt and the lack of specialized equipment the expedition was eventually abandoned but in 1994 a group of french archaeologists began examining what was left of the ancient lighthouse on the seabed of alexandria's eastern harbour the finds included blocks of granite between 49 and 60 tons 30 sphinx heads and five obelisks which were the tall tapered stone monuments typical from ancient egypt there were also examples of columns with engravings dating back to ramesses ii who ruled egypt between 1279 and 1213 bc this was around 900 years before the construction of the lighthouse but these columns may have been reused and re-incorporated into its design in total 3 300 pieces were catalogued by the end of 1995 and 36 granite blocks that once made up the lighthouse now lie in various museums around alexandria but it is possible to scuba dive down to see the ruins that remain with the egyptian government still considering a long-held plan to turn the area into a historical underwater park [Music] since 1978 there have been numerous ideas put forward to rebuild the lighthouse but nothing has ever come of it there was even some suggestion of building an enormous skyscraper on the site but thankfully most agreed that that would have been a bit of an eyesore it's clear that the egyptian government wants to do something with the area to commemorate the lighthouse but due to political and financial problems this just never really happened but the lighthouse still remains the symbol of alexandria and it appears on both its flag and its official emblem the lighthouse at alexandria is but a figment of our imagination today albeit one that does lie at the bottom of the harbour this must have been a magnificent structure to behold but its influence has gone much further than its beam of light ever did while it certainly wasn't the first the lighthouse at alexandria set the standard for lighthouses around the world not only that but as i mentioned earlier the very word for lighthouse in the romance languages comes from this rocky outcrop off the egyptian coast this great monument of the ancient world may no longer stand but its influence and legacy is still shining brightly today so i really hope you found that video interesting like i say it's a bit of a different mega project an ancient mega project if you liked it if you've got suggestions for other ancient mega projects well you know what to do that's what the comments below are for so hit those up and uh and let me know what you think of this video what you'd like to see upload the ones you like all of that good stuff and i'll see you next time [Music] [Music]

Channel: Megaprojects

Views: 455,502

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Id: CkvBBES1aPI

Length: 13min 6sec (786 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 20 2020