The remains of one of the seven ancient wonders of the world were raised from the bottom of the sea in Egypt

22 giant stone blocks have been raised from the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea in Egypt, which are fragments of the foundation of one of the seven wonders of the ancient world — the Lighthouse of Alexandria. This is reported by the GreekReporter portal.

The expedition, conducted under the auspices of the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, made it possible to extract some of the most iconic elements of the lighthouse, including the lintels and pillars of the monumental doorway, each of which weighs 70-80 tons.

The found fragments expand the growing digital archive of this object. Over the past decade, more than 100 flooded architectural elements have already been scanned as part of the PHAROS program. The newly raised blocks will undergo photogrammetric processing, which will create a 3D model of the Lighthouse of Alexandria, which many consider to be the world's first skyscraper. Virtual reconstruction of the object will allow you to understand how the lighthouse existed and how it collapsed.

The work is being carried out on the basis of research data by archaeologist Jean-Yves Empire, who managed to discover fragments of the structure in 1995.

The PHAROS project brings together archaeologists, architects, historians and numismatist experts to collect ancient descriptions, images and testimonies dating back to the end of the IV century BC — XV century AD. This will help fill in the gaps in the history of the lighthouse, some of the fragments of which were used to build the Kite Bay fortress in 1477.

The lighthouse of Alexandria with a height of more than 100 meters was built at the beginning of the III century BC (Hellenistic era) during the reign of the Greek commander and successor of Alexander the Great, Ptolemy I. It served as a lighthouse for sailors, and also symbolized the strategic and cultural importance of Alexandria in The Mediterranean. According to Strabo, an ancient Greek historian and geographer, the lighthouse was designed and built by architect Sostratos of Krid, a friend of Ptolemy. Presumably, he also financed the construction. The lighthouse stood for more than 1600 years before it was damaged by earthquakes and eventually dismantled for building materials.

The list of the greatest buildings — the seven wonders of the ancient world — compiled by the ancient Greeks includes the Pyramid of Cheops, the Hanging Gardens of Semiramis, the statue of Zeus, the temple of Artemis, the Mausoleum in Halicarnassus, the Colossus of Rhodes and the Lighthouse of Alexandria. Only the pyramid of Cheops, which was built around 2560 BC, has survived to this day.