Submerged Blocks of Alexandria's Ancient Lighthouse Lifted from Seafloor

Archaeology Magazine ^ | July 1, 2025 | editors / unattributed

[SunkenCiv]

Built in the third century b.c., the Lighthouse of Alexandria was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Reaching a height of 330 feet, it was one of the world's tallest man-made structures for centuries until it was toppled by earthquakes around the fourteenth century. Its ruins were rediscovered by underwater archaeologists beneath Alexandria harbor in 1994. Now, according to a statement released by La Fondation Dassault Systèmes, a team from the French National Center for Scientific Research has lifted 22 of the monument's massive submerged blocks from the seafloor. These include monumental door lintels and jambs that weigh 70 to 80 tons each, as well as a previously unknown pylon with an Egyptian-style door. A team from the "PHAROS" Project are planning to study and scan each architectural element, adding them to the collection of 100 blocks that have already been digitized underwater. By stitching these images together, researchers are hoping to create a virtual model of the lighthouse that they hope will provide new clues about its construction, design, and ultimate collapse. To read about submerged ruins of the Egyptian port city that predated the rise of Alexandria, go to "Egypt's Temple Town."

[SunkenCiv]

A crane lifts a block from the Alexandria Lighthouse onto a barge in Alexandria, Egypt

GEDEON Programmes/CEAlex

[SunkenCiv]

[exnavy]

I have visited that harbor, it is an amazing place.

[BobL]

WOW! That was one KICK-ASS lighthouse!

[SunkenCiv]

It must have been spectacular in its prime (before the quake).

[SunkenCiv]

There’s an ancient mini version of it somewhere west along the Med coast.

[BobL]

“There’s an ancient mini version of it somewhere west along the Med coast.”

Cool, didn’t know that. Be fun to see! So this lighthouse and the pyramids are the only 2 Ancient Wonders that we have hard evidence of?

[stylin19a]

I wonder what kind of trucks they drove in the 14th century

[NautiNurse]

Fascinating!

[SunkenCiv]

Well, it’s *believed to be* a mini version, based on drawings and such of the original. :^) If it isn’t a copy of the Pharos, it is hard to explain.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burg_al-Arab

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lighthouse_of_Alexandria

[NautiNurse]

There’s an ancient mini version of it somewhere west along the Med coast.

The Abusir funerary monument, aka Pharos of Abusir.

[exnavy]

Yes, looking forward to what that lighthouse looked like

[exnavy]

I think ox powered.

[fso301]

How did they come to be underwater? Did the ice they were resting on melt?

[BobL]

Cool, thanks much!

[SunkenCiv]

Selections from the keywords, sorted:

• Archaeologists Make New Discoveries at Ancient Temple in Sunken City off Egypt's Coast [09/21/2023]
• Ancient Rome: Sunken City Devastated by a Tsunami 1,600 Years Ago Discovered off Tunisian Coast [05/29/2023]
• Fruit baskets from fourth century BC found in ruins of Thonis-Heracleion [08/15/2021]
• LOST AT SEA Stunning Ancient Egyptian shipwreck 'destroyed by earthquake' found in DROWNED city after 2,200 years [07/27/2021]
• Archaeologists find ancient Egyptian shipwreck that sank 2,200 years ago when it was hit by falling blocks as temple of Amun was destroyed by a massive earthquake [07/27/2021]
• Discovery of the ruined temple in the ancient sunken city of Heracleion, Egypt [12/14/2020]
• Nile Shipwreck Discovery Proves Herodotus Right [03/23/2019]
• Found: A Ship Once Described By Herodotus [03/23/2019]
• 10 Mysterious Underwater Cities You Haven't Heard Of [12/14/2014]
• An Ancient City Is Discovered Underwater. What They Found Will Change History Forever [12/07/2013]
• Underwater Archaeologist Franck Goddio Finds 1,600-Year-Old City that Vanished 1,200 Years Ago [06/18/2013]
• Sunken Egyptian city reveals 1,200-year-old secrets [05/01/2013]
• Research Sheds Light On Ancient Egyptian Port And Ship Graveyard [03/29/2013]
• Salvaging Cleopatra's Watery Palace [05/26/2010]
• Divers explore sunken ruins of Cleopatra's palace [05/25/2010]
• Threshold to Cleopatra's mausoleum discovered off Alexandria coast [01/01/2010]
• Raising Alexandria [ from 2007 ] [10/11/2008]
• Tsunami that devastated the ancient world could return [03/09/2008]
• Hidden City Found Beneath Alexandria [07/25/2007]
• Egypt's Sunken Treasures reveals lost world [12/16/2006]
• Nile releases city's deep history [ Rhakotis and Alexandria ] [04/21/2006]
• Unearthing the Treasures of the Mediterranean [07/09/2005]
• Bronze Artifacts Found Off Egypt's Coast [01/18/2004]
• Floods Swept Ancient Nile Cities Away, Experts Says [10/18/2001]

[Ezekiel]

This is really interesting, even or especially time-wise for the sea giving up its dead as 22 blocks have come to light.

lighthouse of Alexandria, one of the Seven Wonders of the World and the most famous lighthouse in antiquity. It was a technological triumph and is the archetype of all lighthouses since.

https://www.britannica.com/topic/lighthouse-of-Alexandria

Some while back when researching historical dates, I came upon that this lighthouse had been completed ~246 BC, which was about the same time that the Jewish translators had been sequestered on the island in order to produce the Septuagint. The "70" -- not an insignificant number, Biblically speaking.

8 Tevet, 2270 🤔years ago:

Torah translated into Greek (246 BCE)

In a second attempt to translate the Torah into Greek (after an unsuccessful attempt 61 years earlier), the ruling Greek-Egyptian emperor Ptolemy gathered 72 Torah sages, had them sequestered in 72 separate rooms, and ordered them to each produce a translation. On the 8th of Tevet of the year 3515 from creation (246 BCE) they produced 72 corresponding translations, including identical changes in 13 places (where they each felt that a literal translation would constitute a corruption of the Torah's true meaning).

This Greek rendition became known as the Septuagint, "of the seventy" (though later versions that carry this name are not believed to be true to the originals). Greek became a significant second language among Jews as a result of this translation. During Talmudic times, Tevet 8 was observed by some as a fast day, expressing the fear of the detrimental effect of the translation.

Even today is what's dubbed the three days of darkness - 8 Tevet for the LXX, 9 Tevet for the death of Ezra, and 10 Tevet for the siege of Jerusalem.

***

Regardless of what anyone thinks of the matter, the simple take-away is that this translation into Greek brought the light of Torah unto the Gentiles, from the same island place of the archetypical lighthouse of the world, both completed at the same time.

A good example for why I don't have any welcome place within established models of understanding [that few ever question], is in that glowing description of the work of Torah sages.

That's because the Columbo in me had remembered the episode ("Dagger of the Mind") starring the Shakespearean actors Admiral Nelson and Pussy Galore.

This part in particular:

You both must be exhausted. I don't know how you do it.

- With innocent, loving hearts.
Good night, Lieutenant.

Well, whatever it is, it sure must be most unusual.

Uh, the reason I say that is because, you know, when my wife and I try to remember... what happened yesterday or the day before, well, we don't agree on anything.

And you two, you not only agree, you use almost the exact same words to tell about it.

🤔

🤷

🍿

[ptsal]

Bkmk

[PIF]

How did they come to be underwater?
—

There was a huge earthquake that took it down and submerged that part of the coast.

[JewishRighter]

Alexandria is also famous for it enormous library, perhaps the greatest ever compiled in the ancient and near ancient world.