The Lighthouse of Alexandria | ||||||||||
On that night, Alexander the Great settles on the shores of the city that will become Alexandria. During his sleep he gets suddenly awoken by an old gray-haired man. The old man points the island of Pharos and vanishes into thin air. Alexander looks at the island and immediately realises the strategic importance of this place... |
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After Alexander's death, a new dynasty of pharaohs takes the power in Egypt; The Ptolemies. This new dynasty was Greek but to keep the unity of Egypt, they also kept the Egyptian traditions. Ptolemy I
wanted to fulfill Alexander's dream and started the construction of Alexandria..
The city became rapidly a very important city. Following Alexander's vision,
Ptolemy I also started the construction of a gigantic lighthouse to protect
the ships against the dangerous Alexandrian shores. This way, Alexandria
would become a commercial centre between the Eastern world and the Western
world. Ptolemy I never saw his project complete because he died before
the lighthouse was finished.. |
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With
the help of computers, they tried to find the structure of the fallen lighthouse.
They rapidly discovered that stones were lying in a line, with bigger stones
at the begin and smaller ones at the end. The existence of the Pharos was
at last proved. The archaelogists directly contacted the press which unveiled
to the world another one of Egypt's secrets. |
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