The Ancients - The Lighthouse of Alexandria

Episode Date: July 6, 2023

The last monument to be added to the list of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, the Lighthouse of Alexandria (also known as the Pharos), was one of the tallest man-made structures in ancient history. Serving as the only guiding beacon along 900km of Mediterranean coast, it played a vital role for sailors, merchants, and travellers in safely navigating into the harbour of Alexandria. But who commissioned this mighty marvel, and what eventually caused its collapse 1500 years later?In this episode, Tristan welcomes Professor Michael Higgins from the University of Quebec to delve into the long history of this monument. Exploring how the Lighthouse changed and expanded over the centuries, the geological landscape on which it was built, and the roles of famous figures such as Alexander the Great and Ptolemy - what can we learn from ancient sources and archaeology about this ancient Wonder - and what's left of it today?Discover the past on History Hit with ad-free original podcasts and documentaries released weekly presented by world renowned historians like Dan Snow, Suzannah Lipscomb, Lucy Worsley, Matt Lewis, Tristan Hughes and more. Get 50% off your first 3 months with code ANCIENTS. Download the app on your smart TV or in the app store or sign up here.You can take part in our listener survey here.For more Ancient's content, subscribe to our Ancient's newsletter here.

Hi, I'm Tristan Hughes, and if you would like the Ancient ad-free, get early access and bonus episodes, sign up to History Hit. With a History Hit subscription, you can also watch hundreds of hours of original documentaries, including my recent documentary all about Petra and the Nabataeans, and enjoy a new release every week. Sign up now by visiting historyhit.com slash subscribe. The Pharos rises at the end of the island. The building is square, about 45 steps wide on each side. The sea surrounds the Pharos, except on the east and south sides. This platform measures, along its sides, from the tip down to the foot of the Pharos wall, six meters in height.

However, on the side facing the sea, it is larger because of the construction and is steeply inclined, like the side of a mountain. The doorway to the Pharos is high up. A ramp about 68 meters long used to lead up to it. This ramp rests on a series of curved arches. My companion got beneath one of the arches and stretched out his arms, but he was not able to reach the sides. There are 16 of these arches, each gradually getting higher until the doorway is reached, the last one being especially high. Eventually, we reached the first stage of the Pharos. There was no stairway inside but a ramp that gradually ascended around the cylindrical core of this huge building. We entered a corridor seven hand spans wide, overhung with finished stones that formed a ceiling.

When we arrived at the top of the first stage, we measured its height from the ground with a piece of string from which we hung a stone. It was roughly 60 metres, the parapet being about 2 metres high. In the middle of the platform of this first stage, the building continued upwards, but now in the shape of an octagon, with each face 10 steps long and 15 spans from the parapet. The wall was about 2 metres thick. This stage was taller than its baseline. Entering, we found a staircase, which we counted as having 18 steps, and arrived at the middle of the upper floor. In the center of this platform, on top of the second stage, the building continued

upwards in cylindrical form, with a diameter of 40 steps. We entered again and climbed 31 steps to arrive at the third stage. On the platform of the third stage, there is a mosque built with four doors and a cupola. In summary, the structure that we had explored had 67 rooms, except for the first, which we found closed, and which, it was said, led underground to the sea. Those were excerpts from the most detailed description we have for one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, the Lighthouse of Alexandria, also known as the Pharos. This description was written by a 12th century Arab scholar called Muhammad el-Balawi who explored the lighthouse when he visited Alexandria. Because that's right, this lighthouse endured for more

than a millennium and over its long history it experienced evolutions and upgrades to its design, overlooking the harbour entrance to this great Mediterranean metropolis. It was one of the tallest man-made structures constructed in ancient history. And this gigantic lighthouse is the focus of our episode today. We are interviewing Professor Michael Higgins from the University of Quebec. Now, Michael's background is geology, but he has recently written a new book exploring the science, engineering and technology of the ancient wonders, which naturally includes the lighthouse. This was a really interesting chat where we not only cover the history of this wonder, but we also delve into Michael's geologist expertise to understand the history of this wonder, but we also delve into Michael's geologist expertise to understand

the importance of the terrain upon which this lighthouse was placed that is so crucial to its story. I really do hope you enjoy, and here's Michael. Michael, it is wonderful to have you on the podcast today. I'm very glad to be here. Michael, it is wonderful to have you on the podcast today. I'm very glad to be here. Well, and we are talking about another of these wonders of the ancient Hellenistic world, the lighthouse of Alexandria. And this is the only one of the seven wonders that actually served a practical purpose.

Yes, it stands out for that. And it also stands out that it's the last one to be added to the list of the seven wonders. The very earliest lists rewarded Babylon with two wonders, the walls and the gardens. And later on, the forest was substituted in for the walls of Babylon. The curious thing is, of course, that some of the people who were writing about the seven wonders were actually in Alexandria and just next door to the forest. I think that it was perhaps because of its practicality that people didn't look at it so highly as the other ones. It wasn't a tomb, it wasn't a monument to a god or anything like that.

Or maybe because they're living there, they didn't appreciate it as much as someone being elsewhere. Yes, we never appreciate the things that are next door to us. I mean, absolutely. Just talk to me in Trafalgar Square or something like that, somewhere I don't go enough in London. And in regards to this almost being an added on later to the list of the seven wonders, this is also structured as it's built and rebuilt several times during its lifetime. Yes, the lifetime of it was 1500 years,

1600 years. And very often people search for the definitive image of it, the definitive description, which there wasn't, because it changed all the time. It fell down, it was rebuilt, it fell down again. It went through many, many cycles. And we, of course, don't have that much information on every single rebuilding. We can just, at specific times, we can have an idea of what it possibly looked like. Well, we'll go through these various different construction phases of the lighthouse, but let's go back to the very beginning. So, Michael, talk to me about the story behind its first construction. Well, I suppose one should start the story with Alexander. Alexander the Great, of course. Alexander the Great, yes.

Well, I'm not sure he was great if you happen to be conquered by him. He breezed through in 332 and decided it was a suitable spot for an important city. But it was easy to choose because it had a harbour. And it was not really, nothing really happened there until Ptolemy took over after the death of Alexander. Even then, it took some time after that before the forest was constructed. But the need for it must have been clear from the very start that although it's a very nice harbor, it's the only harbor for almost 900 kilometers along the coast. The coast is extremely low with a series of sandbags

and it's extremely treacherous and very difficult to work out where you are. So you needed a beacon to guide people into that harbor. And this time you mentioned the word Ptolemy, so the successor of Alexander the Great in Egypt following Alexander's death. Alexandria, it's still a very young city at this time. But when we go into building the lighthouse in the third century BC, we mentioned the name Ptolemy, but who actually oversaw its construction? Well, that has been handed down, even if we don't have much other information. And it's a guy called Sostratus. And he is listed as an architect or a builder or a financer. But I think it's probably the wrong way of looking at it. You have to think of it,

of Ptolemy as an autocrat, like a modern political autocrat, like Putin or somebody like that. And around him were wealthy people. And they could spend their money, provided it was spent in the right direction on some things. So I think that Sostratus was, he was able to profit from his relationship with Ptolemy. But as payment, he had to build something. And obviously, the lighthouse was the thing that he did. So Sostratus has almost got this permit to build the lighthouse in Alexandria. But if you were Sostratus at that time, because I know that your background is in geology and the earth sciences and looking at the lay of the land and so on, what would Sistratus have seen? What's

the geographical topography of this area that he selects for the lighthouse? Well, the geography of the area around Alexandria is a series of ridges. Although along much of the southern and eastern Mediterranean coast, there is a single ridge that's not particularly high, maybe 30, 40 meters high, just in from the coast. In Alexandria, there are a series of eight of these ridges, which go up inland as you go further south, and they rise up and up and up. And in an area like this, which is prone to flooding because we're very close to the Nile, you ideally want to be able to build on higher land so that during the Nile floods, you won't be affected by the floods. So there was one ridge in which was dissected. It probably was not ever a continuous

ridge. And the Pharos Island, where the Pharos was constructed, was part of this ridge which went along next to the ocean. And then further inland, about a kilometer or so, there was another ridge. further inland, about a kilometre or so, there was another ridge. And this ridge was where Alexandria was built. And then there are another six ridges further back. And this is extremely unusual for this part of the world. But it gives you the right geography. You have access to the Nile, but you don't have the problem with flooding. It's so interesting because sometimes we talk about Rome as being the city on seven hills. Alexandria and the Pharos, it's the story of the city and its lighthouse on two ridges then. Exactly, on two ridges, yes. So these ridges, their origin is a bit strange. No geologists seem to be able to give quite the same story, but the general feeling is that

they're related to glacial cycles. As many people know, we have just come out of a glaciation 20,000 years ago. It was the coldest period of time. And at that time, sea level was 120 meters below the current sea level. So along the coast there were vast flats, which went right out into the Mediterranean. But before that, there was a cycle of warmth and higher sea level. So when the sea level is high, it's thought that the wind blows the sand up from the beach and makes what's called a storm berm. So it's a ridge just above

the high tide level. And anybody who's walked on a beach can often see one of these storm ridges. And then during the glacial cycle, when it was cold, the beach became incredibly wide and the wind blew the shelly sand up onto this ridge and deposited and built it up higher. And that's why these ridges are higher than you would expect them to be. It's fascinating to have a look at one of the wonders through this geological lens, because it gives you a bit more of an understanding why, of all places, this island, Farros Island, is chosen to be the basis, the foundation for this lighthouse. It is, as you say, it is higher up, it is less susceptible to be pushed over, almost, by erosion? Yes, it's actually a slab of limestone that's floating

on sand. And it's somewhat more resistant to erosion. It stands up. It's the place you want to build it. And the other advantage is, of course, you have a supply of raw material to actually build the lighthouse. This same rock, which makes up the the island itself can be or was quarried to build the lighthouse itself. So let's talk therefore about this initial construction. Do we have any thoughts or ideas therefore? You mentioned this local limestone. I mean, can we start to put together a picture of how this Ptolemaic first Pharos looked? We have no real descriptions of the first Pharos. All we can do is assume that the later Pharoses, the bottom, the basal part of the Pharos, stayed the same all the time through history. But probably the lower part of the Pharos was the original tower.

I like to think of it more as a beacon than a lighthouse. And I think one of the models perhaps for the Sostratus followed with his design was the pylons, the monumental gateways in front of many Egyptian temples. For instance, Karnak. Karnak. Exactly. It's the classic one. These monumental gateways consist of very large towers, 30 meters wide, 30, 40 meters high. And they taper slightly upwards. There's usually two on either side. And then in between them, there is a monumental gateway.

Not necessarily with a gate, but it'll be a very, very large gateway. And I think the original Pharos was based on that in a way. They took the two parts of the pylon and essentially piled one on top of the other and put the monumental gateway in the base of the whole structure. So we end up with a structure about 30 meters square at the bottom. It tapers slightly upwards, and it's 70 or 80 meters high. And then in the base, there is this monumental gateway. And we know the dimensions of this model gateway because there are remains of the granite slabs, which we used to make the gateway. I don't think it was ever closed with a door. I rather think it was a bit perhaps like the false doors in the pyramids or the tombs.

It was essentially a decorative element. And there was actually a real door elsewhere, which was used in more human dimensions. This monumental gateway was probably 13 meters high. And you can't imagine producing a gate you could open, was probably 13 meters high. And you can't imagine producing a gate you could open, which is 13 meters high. It's an absolutely amazing achievement by Sostratus and those who constructed it. You mentioned granite there, the material granite. Was this also locally acquired or from further away? The granite came from Aswan. So that's 1,000 kilometers further south. And it was floated down the Nile. And the Egyptians had a lot of experience

with working with this granite. I mean, if you look at the pyramids, which are considerably older than this, a large amount of granite was used in them. So they were used to dealing, you know, quarrying the granite, shaping the granite in huge blocks. And so, obviously obviously they must have, they appear to have ordered that specifically for the construction.

And then for the rest of the building, they essentially quarried this shelly limestone, which was essentially kind of almost like a fossilized beach on the ridge itself. Now we don't, we know where the granite quarries are, but we don't know where the quarries are for the stone that was used to build the Farras. And it's almost certainly because they're now below sea level. That's part of the story that will come in later with the destruction. But basically, the sea level has risen about seven meters since the original construction of the Farras. It is such an interesting contrast

almost, isn't it? When you look at the building material of the pharos, where you have the local stone and then this very highly rated granite being brought in from very far away, very traditional as well, very historic materials that have been used in the pyramids. It is fascinating how they're both brought together for the construction. Yes, they are. And the limestone that was used is a very soft limestone. People often think of limestone as being a hard rock and needing very hard tools, but they did cut it with bronze saws and iron chisels. It was relatively soft.

The downside of that was that it was also readily eroded, but usually speed is what triumphs over longevity of construction absolutely so strassos was thinking for his lifetime wasn't he there i think so i think he wanted it to be finished absolutely well i mean do we know what might have been on top of this lighthouse too well first of all i think we should say a little bit about what we think is was inside let's do it okay it appears that when they were building it, they built in a ramp inside the Pharos, some kind of spiral ramp, which were in a tight up to the top. And that can't have been anything that was added in later. It's got to have been something in the original construction. So they obviously felt they needed access to the top. And that was built in with the original construction, original design.

So it appears that it basically tapered upwards. There was, I think, a flat top. And on that, there was some kind of plinth. And then there's evidence that there was a monumental statue of Zeus, Zeus Sotter, which is Zeus the savior on it. Now, whether they had hearths up there for signaling fires is unclear, but I think it's very likely that the ramp was put in so that they could take material up to that platform to burn as a light source. But I don't think it was ever done. I think it was just done for ceremonial occasions. I don't think it was done on a regular basis.

One thing one should remember at that time was that they didn't sail at night. They only sailed during the day. So they needed actually a beacon, some kind of tower to be able to locate, but they didn't particularly need a light on it. It was only in Roman times they needed light because of congestion. From the remains of the Pharos in the waters around the harbor itself, we find a lot of statues or remains of statues. And so it was very likely that the original Ptolemaic Pharos actually had a temple beside it, probably dedicated to Isis, probably essentially furnished with statues that were recycled or stolen, whichever way you look at it, from temples further south. Some of these were very large statues, in fact, but whether they were beside the far-off, whether they were part

of the structure is unclear at this point. There you go. And do we also know, because of course, they might have a temple beside the lighthouse, and it's on an island. Do we know of any bridge or how they connected the Pharos to the mainland? Yes, there was a causeway built called the Heptastadion. And that was just the length. The stadium was about 200 meters. That was about 1.4 kilometers long. And it was essentially a causeway with bridges at either end. And it linked Pharos Island to the mainland to the south. And one aspect, unforeseen aspect perhaps, of building this link was that it isolated the bay into two harbors. And it very soon became silted up with beaches on either side of this causeway.

Although they put in bridges to try and keep a little bit of flow through so that the harbour would silt up. But modern Alexandria, of course, is mostly built on this isthmus, which is entirely artificial. Well, it's so interesting that you've described this first pharaohs in the Ptolemaic period. Because although you've got the granites coming from very far away, and it's still a massive construction, this beacon, it still sounds, dare I say, and probably won't, but quite simple. It doesn't feel at this stage, at least, a world wonder yet, does it? No, I don't think so. I think it's regarded as something practical, industrial, all the rest of it.

Now, later on, I think it became more elaborate. But it certainly, it had the statue of Zeus on the top. I think that's fairly clear. Whether it was at the very earliest stage or whether that was put on 1,500 years later, we don't really know. Well, I jumped the gun earlier saying let's go to Roman times. But now let's go to Roman times and how it evolves. Because Mark Antony in Cleopatra, Octavian, Egypt is now no longer in Ptolemaic control. It's now in Roman control following 30 BC. How do we see the Pharos evolve during this next period of occupation, the time of the Romans in Alexandria? Well, the Romans viewed Egypt as their granary. So they needed grain from Egypt to feed Rome, essentially. So they had a large increase in the number of boats and a large increase in the size

of the boats. They had some really very large boats coming in. And they needed basically extra capacity in the harbour itself. There was actually congestion during the season. And so they ended up having to sail at night. And so possibly at this time, the forest was slightly extended and a light was installed. Now we know a little bit more about what the forest looked like at this stage. Strabo doesn't exactly give us a lot of information. He says it has several floors, several stories, and it's white. So the white bit implies to me that it was covered in stucco and that they were probably putting stucco on it to repair the stonework which had been eroded.

What do you mean by stucco? Stucco is essentially whitewash. So you burn lime, you spread it on, and it makes a kind of weak cement. But it waterproofs and stabilizes the surface. Because this limestone is extremely porous and extremely easily eroded. So you have to basically maintain it the whole time. And this would perhaps be a way of doing it. We also know a little bit about what it looks like from Roman coins.

Coins are kind of interesting because they were often, I think, they had the attractions of the town put on it because they made nice little souvenirs. And people were proud of it. So we have a number of coins which show the Roman Pharos, and they seem to be fairly consistent. It has the square base with the gateway, which we've seen before. It has a second story, which is maybe cylindrical, maybe octagonal, we don't know, About a quarter of the height and about half the

diameter. Then on top of that, there appears to be a circle of columns with a roof on top of that and a statue. And the statue now is usually attributed to Poseidon. But I wonder if it's the same statue as before. Poseidon would be, to my mind, more logical than Zeus, because Poseidon is obviously the god of the sea I'm James Patton Rogers a war historian advisor to the UN and NATO and host of the warfare podcast from History Hit join me twice a week, every week, as we look at the conflicts that have defined our past and the ones shaping our future. We talk to award-winning journalists.

ISIS, this peculiar strain that we all came to know very well in the mid-2010s, really got its start because of the US invasion of Iraq. We hear from the people who were actually there. The Sudanese have been incredible. They have managed to get supplies to people, to individuals who are suffering. And we learn from the remarkable historians shining a light on forgotten histories.

For the most part, the millions of people who were taken to those camps were immediately murdered. Auschwitz combined the functions of death camp and concentration camp and slave labour. Join us on the Warfare podcast for a history hit twice a week, every week, wherever you get your podcasts. Do you think these multiple stories, many of these new stories that you see in these Roman coins are added at this time because of that reason that you mentioned earlier, because there is this increase in traffic? I really find it interesting that there is an increase in traffic because even in Ptolemaic times, Alexandria was this great center with connections across the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean. But it feels like it almost

goes to a new level in Roman times. Oh, yes. Yeah, it was huge at this point. I mean, I think some of the grain ships were up to a thousand tons. Wow. They were huge. We only needed to lose one or two grain ships to make the whole thing worthwhile. And I think in regards to visual depictions, I've got in my notes here, and this is something that I remember chatting to an interviewee about quite some time ago, Lauren Morris, and she highlighted how you have another depiction in the Begrim Horde in Afghanistan, I think it's called the Pharos Vase. Yes, the Pharos Vase is quite interesting because it shows the same components as the Roman coins, except that the statue is rather large. Oh, something I should have, I forgot to mention with the Roman coins is the tritons.

On the Roman coins, there's another component, which is at the edges of the lower story, the base, there are tritons. And the tritons are kind of portrayed as merman with a curly tail and a top. They're kind of semi-divine spirit creatures, but they are clearly put on the Roman coins. So they were clearly something that people always remembered and remarked on. So fascinating, isn't it? And perhaps maybe there was art decoration showing these tritons on the original Pharos as well at the time, which kind of gives that link. Who knows whether they were there in the original.

But I like to think of the original one as being more essentially Egyptian in its simplicity. Although there was a statue on the top. We're talking about another depiction quickly if we head east, because I remember doing an interview about this some time ago with Lauren Morris. We were talking about the depiction quickly if we head east because i remember doing an interview about this some time ago with lauren morris we were talking about the begram horde in monday afghanistan but it was fascinating because amidst the many remarkable objects discovered there you

have this depiction of what we believe is the pharaohs of alexandria on the pharaohs vows too yes it is and and it has all the components of the Roman coins. It has the two stories. It has the tritons. It has the statue of Poseidon on the top. The scale's a bit strange, but yes, it's a stunning piece, although I believe it no longer exists. I haven't seen any pictures of it in modern day, I must admit. No, I think it's gone. Well, come on then. Let's focus on the inside of the lighthouse again with the Roman periods,

because you mentioned how maybe more of a beacon in the Ptolemaic period, but by the Roman period with this increase in traffic, there is need now for a light. I mean, talk to me about this light on the Roman fields. Okay. At this point, I think they needed to have a light on a kind of a more permanent basis. And by building a second story, they got up a little bit higher. People could see it from further away. What it was, I think, was probably a hearth, perhaps in the center of those columns protected by the roof from bad weather, because obviously the time you needed the light most was when the weather was bad in the winter. You didn't need it in the summer, particularly. So they would have probably burnt brush or small

trees. One has to remember that Egypt is not a desert from end to end. Around Alexandria, it's a Mediterranean climate. It does have wet winters. Things do grow there, but probably not big trees. So I think they were burning brush. They were probably burning trash, essentially, old bits of boats and anything like that. And they might have been burning some bitumen as well. There certainly was trade in that. It may have been too valuable a material at that point, but it's certainly possible that the bitumen would

have probably come from the Dead Sea, not from Mesopotamia, because the main source at that time was the Dead Sea. And so what's all of this about mirrors too? Well, there are descriptions that there were bronze mirrors used to increase the light output. And obviously, one possibility would be putting the mirrors on the landward side where you didn't need the light. Or another possibility would be to suspend the mirrors above the fire at a 45 degree angle, in which case they would then reflect the light out. But again, we know very little about it, except that there were probably mirrors used. Is that quite fascinating for you in your science background, trying to figure out the engineering,

the maths, the science behind this structure, behind creating a lighthouse in ancient history? Yes. I mean, it's an incredible idea, the science of how to produce a light source. But it must have been envisaged in some ways from the very start by the construction of the ramp inside so that they could actually use, presumably, mules to drag fuel up to the top, or slaves. One or the other, indeed. We mustn't forget that point. Well, therefore, let's keep moving on in regards to the Roman occupation of Egypt. So this is more than 500 years. Do we know how the Pharos fares over these centuries? Always the big question in the Mediterranean region is earthquakes. Now,

in fact, the area around the Pharos, Alexandria and that part of Egypt, it has a very low incidence of earthquakes. But they do occur. And a greater problem is earthquakes further north, which produce tsunamis. There was one such earthquake probably near Crete in 365 AD. And this earthquake produced a lot of effects on Crete. But we see the effects of the tsunami in Alexandria. And there were some 50,000 people killed. That is what is recorded. And it seems to have produced a great deal of destruction. But curiously enough, the faros was not affected. And one possibility is that the faros may have had a courtyard built around it with a wall. And the wall around the courtyard may have been essentially a part of the temple or a part of the decorative structure. Or it may have been there to protect the forest from sea spray. But there are descriptions which include this courtyard.

And that courtyard may have protected the forest from the tsunami, although it was obviously never designed to do that. Just simply by breaking the wave before it came in. Yes, it becomes almost an ancient wave break. And it's amazing how it survives. 365, it's this infamous year in Alexandria's history. And yet the lighthouse stays standing. Do you think that's also a testament, of course course you have to this makeshift wave break but i'm guessing also the quality of the foundation of the building of the lighthouse

itself because i'm presuming there would have been some water that would have still at least reached the wall oh the water would have undoubtedly gone in yes yes but the foundations were were correct and up until this point we don't we think that sea level was at the same level as it was when it was constructed. Because later on, the whole island has sunk. And once, of course, an island sinks, then the sea becomes closer to the building. So what is this next phase then? We get to the Islamic phase once the Roman conquest or the Roman occupation of Egypt comes to an end. Yes, exactly. So in 640, there was the Islamic conquest of Egypt. The Romans had been in decline for a while, and the trade had been in decline.

So it certainly changed, in many ways, the aspect of the Fars. It became from something that was to guide trade in. The trade still continued, but at a lower level, and I think became more of a symbol of the Islamic city itself. One big change, of course, with the coming of Islam was the number of pilgrims who went to Mecca from western parts of the Islamic empire. And many of these visitors actually recorded aspects of the Pharos. They wrote these down. There was quite a tradition of writing essentially a journal of one's hajj. And these are written down, and we have quite a large number of them, some of them extremely detailed. So what do they recall, therefore, about how the Pharos looked at that time?

Well, the best one is a guy called al-Balawi, who was from southern Spain, which had a very strong intellectual history there. And Al-Balawi was kind of interesting because he was actually a builder. So he built mosques and he went on his pilgrimage and recorded a lot of information about the buildings he went along just for his own personal interest. a lot of information about the buildings he went along just for his own personal interest. But he also had the skills to be able to describe them. And so for the Pharos, for his visit in 1165, he gave an extremely detailed description. He went up to the top of the lighthouse and dangled down a piece of string and then measured off in fathoms, the fathom, how high the forest was. A fathom is just, of course, the distance between your two fingers

when your arms are stretched out. It's ideal for measuring things with bits of string. He also measured other parts with paces, with cubits, which is the distance from the tip of your fingers to your elbow. He also used hand spans, which is the distance from your little finger to your thumb when you hold out your thing. And he used some other mysterious measures, which we don't quite know what, but they probably are thumb. So he gave extraordinarily detailed description of the Pharos at that point. And his description is the one that most people use when they're reconstructing the image of the forest. So it has three floors, has three stories. The bottom part is the same part which was there

for the Roman period and the same Ptolemaic one. So it's the original part, but we now know its exact dimensions. And on top of that, there was an octagonal section, which was about And on top of that, there was an octagonal section, which was about half the height of the base and about half the diameter. And another traveler says it made a break. It's unclear as to whether it really was made of brick at that point or whether it was. I think it was probably covered with stucco again. And then there was a third story, which is circular. And again, half the height of the story beneath it and about half the diameter. And then on top, there was a mosque. And the mosque was quite small. It was not a mosque

which you could probably have more than about half a dozen people in. It was under a dome. And I think it may have been reserved for very important people or some special occasion, but it definitely wasn't something where the public rushed in in huge numbers. It just simply wasn't big enough. But his description, as say, is extremely accurate. And people fall into the trap that they search for the definitive description and they find the one which is the most detailed. And they say it always looked like that, because this guy describes it so well,

whereas he was describing what he saw in 1165. It wasn't what it had been previously. So it's not as it would have been described by, say, someone like Philo of Byzantium, or one of those scholars working in Alexandria several centuries earlier. That is interesting. I have no idea that the modern reconstructions, many of them are based on that later. that the modern reconstructions, many of them are based on that later Islamic description. Yes, very often one sees them in fact with the Islamic pharos, but painted into a Ptolemaic setting with a Ptolemaic city beside it. Yeah, the Ptolemies would not be happy with that I don't think if they saw it today. Well, I mean, so we have this beautiful, this incredibly detailed description of the pharos in Islamic times, in the medieval period. Do we have

archaeological remains of this last Pharos too to really support it? Yes, we do. When the Pharos collapsed, it collapsed into the harbour. The remains of it still exist to this day, in fact, but we can exactly, or almost exactly, date the collapse of the Fars from another visitor, from Ibn Battuta, who was another Islamic visitor from Tangiers in this case. And he is probably the greatest traveler of the medieval period. Really? And he traveled an extraordinary distance as far as India and China. And he describes the Fars on the way out for his trip,

and he describes it on the way back. And when he's going out, the forest is still existent. It's standing. It's not in particularly good condition, but it is definitely standing. There's no doubt about it. And when he comes back 20 years later, it's collapsed. So we know it's somewhere in that 20-year period. Because people don't tend to record when things disappear. They tend to record when they appear. Do we know why it collapsed? Well, that's an interesting story. Although the overall geological history of this region is uplift over the last million years of about 120 meters. In fact, since Ptolemaic times, the ground has gone down about seven meters. And the reason

it's gone down is partly because of the sediments, loss of water from the sediments. And it's partly probably deeper things related to the movement of the Nile Delta, essentially the weight being pushed down on the Nile Delta of extra sediments. So we can date more or less when this happened. And a lot of it happened in the 8th or 9th century. So once the land goes down, or the sea level goes up, it's exactly the same thing. The sea starts to approach the forest itself. So initially, the sea's a long way away and the forest is unaffected by it. But as the land starts to sink, the sea begins to approach the forest. Now the forest is built on essentially a layer of limestone, of this shelly limestone. But beneath that shelly limestone is sand,

unconsolidated sand, very easily eroded. So as the sea begins to rise, it starts to erode underneath the platform which supports the Pharos. And there is descriptions of how they were fixing this problem as it was happening by dumping old columns in and things like that. Basically any old rubbish to try and reduce this erosion, but stopped doing it for some time. And it got more and more eroded until the limestone platform on which the forest collapsed with the forest itself, and the whole thing fell into the sea.

So it was not related to an earthquake, which is what kind of you would have expected in this part of the world. But no, it seems to have been just simply essentially a lack of maintenance. And one reason, of course, why there was a lack of maintenance was trade had fallen off. maintenance was trade had fallen off. And in 1318, there was a famine, possibly produced by climate change, that distant volcanic eruptions, which created a period of very damp, cool weather. And it's thought that there was perhaps an outbreak of typhus at this time, which was related to the weather. So there was the great famine of 1318. And the other thing that happened, of course, was the Black Death. The Black Death happened while Batuta was away. And he basically came back to Alexandria at the peak of the Black Death. Yes. The origin of the Black Death, it's a

bacterium plague. It's thought to have originated in Asia and was originally a bacterium which was a parasite of gerbils. There was a failure of the rain. It's thought to be a failure of the rains in Central Asia. So the gerbils died and the fleas infected with this bacterium then moved on to other hosts. Some of the hosts were the animals which were used to transport goods along the Silk Road from China through to the West. So it was somewhat ironic that the Silk Road, which had enabled the travels of people like in Batuta, and it had in fact done a tremendous increase in wealth, was also the same route along which the plague travelled. Michael, it's so interesting to retell the story of the Pharos today

from its beginnings to its end in the 14th century, around the time, as you say, of the Black Death. And also, you say you have the archaeological remains still visible. Yes. Underwater, like the island itself, climate changes, that island which it was based on, the foundations, that ridge, is that now also completely underwater? No, the higher parts of it are still existent.

And when the Faros collapsed into the sea, there was a lot of rock of the blocks was still above water. And they were recycled into building a fort, which is still there, called the Cape Bay Fort. And a lot of people say that fort was built on the foundations of the Faras. But this can't be so. And nobody would ever build on foundations because they collapse into the ocean. But also, to build foundations, you've obviously got to build it beside the pile of rubble, not on the pile of rubble. And the fort had been renovated a number of times. Napoleon renovated it, in fact, when he invaded Egypt. And then in 1939, they built another breakwater to protect the fort. And the breakwater was right across the remains of the Pharos on the

harbour floor. But it wasn't until the 1990s when a second breakwater was built. In fact, huge concrete blocks were sunk and over the top of the remains of the firehouse. And at that point, basically, the archaeological community and citizens, I think, of Alexandria were horrified by this. And at that point, the underwater excavation started. But it was only essentially being forced by essentially the abuse of the site by these concrete blocks. There you go. And that underwater archaeology story of Alexandria with the lighthouse

and so much more, they're going to continue to learn more in the years ahead. So that's really exciting for the story of this wonder. It keeps going on. It does indeed. Yes, yes. It continues on. Well, Michael, this has been an absolutely fascinating chat. It keeps going on. It does indeed. Yes, yes. It continues on. Well, Michael, this has been an absolutely fascinating chat. I'm going to wrap it up now. But lastly, you have written a book about the Pharos, but also the other wonders of the ancient

world, it is called? It is called Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, Science, Technology and Engineering. Well, Michael, it only goes for me to say, thank you so much for taking the time to come on the podcast today. It was my pleasure. Well, there you go. There was Professor Michael Higgins talking all things The Lighthouse of Alexandria, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. I hope you enjoyed the episode. Now, last things for me, you know what I'm going to say, but if you have been enjoying The An ancients recently and you want to help us out where you know what you can do, you can leave us a lovely rating on Apple Podcasts, on Spotify, wherever you get your podcasts from. It really

does help as we continue our infinite mission to share these amazing stories from our distant past with you and with as many people as possible. Now whilst you're're there why not check out our new artwork it looks incredible kudos to the whole ancients team to elena to annie to rabia who created the art and of course to our main editor aiden in helping create this amazing new artwork so check that out whilst you're there see if you know what each of the little images represents and where from the ancient world they're from. That's my little challenge to you. But that's enough from me,

and I will see you in the next episode.