Port Said Lighthouse
Port Said Lighthouse (Arabic: فنار بورسعيد القديم) is an important architectural and tourist landmark in Port Said, Egypt. Construction was completed in 1869, one week prior to the opening of the Suez Canal. The lighthouse was built to guide ships passing through the canal and is now the only structure remaining from the original Port Said infrastructure. Because of the buildup of silt along the coast of the port, the lighthouse is too far inland and can no longer serve its original purpose of guiding ships. In January 2011, the Port Said Lighthouse was officially registered as one of Egypt’s national monuments.
Quotes
[edit]- On the following morning, the 22nd, I climbed to the top of the lighthouse of Port Said. It is one of the highest in the world—160 feet high—and its electric light is visible at a distance of twenty-one nautical miles. Its strong walls are built of blocks of the same concrete as the mole of the harbour—immense cubes of artificial stone, composed of seven parts of desert sand and one part of French hydraulic lime. The view from the top did not in any respect answer my expectations, for, beyond Port Said itself and its immediate neighbourhood of flat sand, nothing is to be seen but water on every side.
- Ernst Haeckel, as translated by Clara Bell, A Visit to Ceylon. New Delhi: Asian Educational Services. 1995. p. 31. ISBN 8120610423. (reprint of 1883 original — In October 1881 Haeckel was in Port Said as part of his visit to Ceylon in 1881–1882.)
- There is a small light exhibited on each of the pier ends: Port Said Lighthouse itself stands at the inner entrance of the western breakwater. It is a grey-colored octagonal-shaped tower, constructed of concrete, 180 feet high, exhibiting an electric light visible at a distance of 25 miles, and it forms a noble beacon by day or night.
- George Henry Richards and Andrew Clarke, (1869). "Report on the Suez Canal". The Royal Geographical Society of London 14: 259–273. (quote from p. 265)
External links
[edit]
- Rowlett, Russ. Lighthouses of Egypt: Mediterranean Sea. (Port Said Lighthouse, 2021 photo by Sherief Abd Elrahman)
- Port Said, vol. 22, 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica