Editing Lighthouse of Alexandria (section)

==Construction==
[[File:Philip Galle - Lighthouse of Alexandria (Pharos of Alexandria) - 1572.jpg|thumb|upright 1.2|''Lighthouse of Alexandria'' by [[Philip Galle]]; 1572, [[Rijksmuseum]]]]
The lighthouse was constructed in the third century BC. After [[Alexander the Great]] died, Ptolemy the First ([[Ptolemy I Soter]]) declared himself king in 305 BC and commissioned its construction shortly thereafter. The building was finished during the reign of his son, [[Ptolemy II Philadelphus]], and took twelve years to complete at a total cost of 800&nbsp;[[Talent (measurement)|talent]]s of silver.<ref>Over twenty-three tons of silver. "This was an enormous sum, a tenth of the treasury when Ptolemy I assumed the throne. (In comparison, the [[Parthenon]] is estimated to have cost at least 469 talents of silver.)"[http://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encyclopaedia_romana/greece/paganism/pharos.html]</ref> The light was produced by a furnace at the top, and the tower was said to have been built mostly with solid blocks of [[limestone]] and [[granite]].<ref>{{cite web|last1=Cartwright|first1=Mark|title=Lighthouse of Alexandria|url=https://www.worldhistory.org/Lighthouse_of_Alexandria/|website=[[World History Encyclopedia]]|access-date=2020-11-10}}</ref>

In his encyclopedic manuscript ''[[Geographica]]'', [[Strabo]], who visited Alexandria in the late first century BC, reported that [[Sostratus of Cnidus]] had a dedication to the "Saviour Gods" inscribed in metal letters on the lighthouse. Writing in the first century AD, [[Pliny the Elder]] stated in his ''[[Natural History (Pliny)|Natural History]]'' that Sostratus was the architect, although this conclusion is disputed.<ref>{{cite book|last=Tomlinson|first=Richard Allan|title=From Mycenae to Constantinople: the evolution of the ancient city|year=1992|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-0-415-05998-5|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UNEOAAAAQAAJ&q=pliny+Sostratus++lighthouse&pg=PA105|pages=104–105}}</ref> In his second century AD educational treatise ''[[How to Write History]]'', [[Lucian]] claimed that Sostratus hid his name under plaster which bore the name of Ptolemy, so that when the plaster eventually fell off, Sostratus's name would be visible in the stone.<ref>{{cite book|last=Mckenzie|first=Judith|title=Architecture of Alexandria and Egypt 300 B.C. A.D 700|year=2007|publisher=Yale University Press|isbn=978-0-300-11555-0|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KFNCaZEZKYAC&pg=PA41|page=41}}</ref><ref>[[Lucian]] ''How to Write History'', LXII

<blockquote>After he [Sostratus] had built the work he wrote his name on the masonry inside, covered it with gypsum, and having hidden it inscribed the name of the reigning king. He knew, as actually happened, that in a very short time the letters would fall away with the plaster and there would be revealed: 'Sostratus of Cnidos, the son of Dexiphanes, to the Divine Saviours, for the sake of them that sail at sea.' Thus, not even he had regard for the immediate moment or his own brief lifetime: he looked to our day and eternity, as long as the tower shall stand and his skill abide. History then should be written in that spirit, with truthfulness and an eye to future expectations rather than with adulation and a view to the pleasure of present praise.</blockquote></ref>

The blocks of sandstone and limestone used in the construction of the lighthouse have been scientifically analysed to discover where they originated, with mineralogical and chemical analysis pointing to the [[Wadi Hammamat]] quarries, in the desert to the east of Alexandria.<ref>{{cite web|title=Characterization and Source of Sedimentary Rocks of the Alexandria Lighthouse Archaeological Objects, Egypt|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/252071415|website=ResearchGate|access-date=2020-11-10}}</ref>