Le Phare d'Alexandrie La Merveille retrouvée

Jean-Yves Empereur

Published by Gallimard - Collection : Découvertes Gallimard, Archéologie, 1998

The youngest of the Wonders of the World stood in Alexandria, the new capital of Egypt founded by Alexander the Great in 331 BC. The tower, designed to guide mariners approaching the low-lying and dangerous coast, was baptised Pharos after the island on which it stood. And great wonders were spoken of this tower. It reached some 135 metres high, its light carried some 100 nautical miles, a constant stream of beast of burdens climbed up an interior ramp bringing the fuel that burnt day and night, its hundreds of rooms held the men responsible for its operation. And above all else, even the royal palaces, the Museum and the Library, the Pharos was the glory of the town and travellers would take home little models and wondrous tales as souvenirs.

But this most solid of constructions could not ultimately withstand the fierce earthquakes that shook Alexandria in the Middle Ages. It finally fell in 1303 and was effectively lost until Jean-Yves Empereur rediscovered the stones that made the Seventh Wonder of the World lying in the Mediterranean. And it is this story that he tells.

The Pharos in all its stages with more than 130 illustrations: Greek intaglios, Roman coins, Byzantine mosaics, medieval manuscripts, maps and charts. These are visions both realist and idealised that have fed the imagination. Added to this are fascinating underwater photographs and scientific reconstitutions that bring the Pharos to life.