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ALEXANDER THE GREAT (MACEDONIAN)
POSEIDON, NEPTUNE
THE LIGHTHOUSE OF ALEXANDRIA
The LIGHTHOUSE OF ALEXANDRIA is one of the so called "seven wonders of the world", a huge tower with a height of 120 m, standing on the island of Pharos at the entrance to the port of Alexandria, which served as a lighthouse and an observation tower.
The city itself was founded as the new capital of Egypt in 332-331 BC by Alexander the Great, a majestic palace, parks and gardens were built in it.
There was also the tomb of Alexander the Great, the Museum an institution at the Temple of the Muses, where scientists and poets lived, the famous Library of Alexandria, which contained about 500 thousand scrolls.
Famous mathematicians (Euclid), scientists, doctors, and astronomers lived in Alexandria.
It was a major cultural and scientific center of that time.
There, for the safe approach of ships to the city, the architect Sostratos built the Lighthouse of Alexandria (c.280 BC).
The huge three storey tower was located on the eastern shore of the island of Pharos, which was connected to the mainland for convenience.
An inscription was carved on the wall of the lighthouse: "Sostratus, the son of Dexiphanes of Cnidus, dedicated to the saviour gods for the sake of the sailors."
The ground floor, rectangular in plan, made of large limestone slabs (the length of each wall is 30.5 m), was oriented to the cardinal directions.
The second floor, an octagonal tower lined with marble slabs, was oriented in the direction of the eight main winds.
This part of the lighthouse was decorated with bronze statues, some of them served as weather vanes that indicated the direction of the wind.
The third floor had a round shaped lantern, and ended with a dome on which stood a bronze statue of Poseidon, about 7 m high.
The light of the lighthouse was burning in the lantern, the light of which was amplified by the reflection of a system of metal concave mirrors, and was visible from afar.
Fuel for the fire was brought up by loaded donkeys on a spiral, sloping staircase The lighthouse also served as a fortress, where a large garrison was located, an observation post for detecting the enemy, in the underground part there was a tank with drinking water in case of a siege.
The lighthouse stood for almost a thousand years, but in 796 it was severely destroyed by an earthquake.
Later, the Arabs who came to Egypt tried to restore it, and by the 14th century the height of the lighthouse was only about 30 m.
At the end of the 15th century, Sultan Kait Bey erected a fortress on the site of the lighthouse, which still stands today.
The lighthouse of Alexandria is considered one of the seven wonders of the world – the most famous monuments of sculpture and architecture, described by ancient historians and travelers, including the "father of history" Herodotus (b. c.484 – d. c. 425 BC) in its History.
This number, along with the lighthouse of Alexandria (3rd century BC), the statue of Zeus in Olympia (5th century BC), the Colossus of Rhodes (c. 292-280 BC), includes the temple of Artemis in Ephesus (c. 550 BC), the ancient Egyptian pyramids (3 thousand BC), the hanging gardens of Semiramis (7th century BC), the mausoleum in Halicarnassus (c. 4 century BC).
Only the pyramids have almost completely survived to this day.
Near the city of Hill in Iraq, there are ruins of vaulted structures: apparently, "hanging gardens" were broken on their roof.
The British Museum in London contains fragments of the sculpture of the mausoleum of Halicarnassus (sculptors Scopas, Timothy, Briaxis, Leochar).
From the temple of Artemis in Ephesus (Ionian dipter), built by Arch.
A bureaucrat, the foundations have been preserved.
Other "wonders of the world" are known only from images and descriptions.
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