Νῆσος ἔπειτά τις ἐστὶ πολυκλύστῳ ἐνὶ πόντῳ
Αἰγύπτου προπάροιθε (Φάρον δέ ἑ κικλήσkουσι)
Τοσσον δ’ ἂνευθ’ ὄσσον τεπανημέριη γλαφυρὴ νηῦς
Ἤνυσεν, ᾗ λιγὺς οὖρος ἐπιπνέιῃσιν ὂπισθεν.
Odyssey, iv., l. 354.
Pliny, however, does not scruple to identify the Pharos of Homer’s time with that of his own day. “Pharos,” says he, “quondam diei navigatione distans ab Ægypto, nunc è turri nocturnis ignibus cursum navium regens.” Hist. Nat., v. 31; see also Hist. Nat., ii. 87, and xiii. 21.
The accounts which have come down to us of the dimensions of this remarkable edifice are exceedingly various; and the statements of the distance at which it could be seen are clearly fabulous. That of Josephus (who likens it to the second of Herod’s three Towers at Jerusalem, called Phasael, in honour of his brother) is the least removed from probability; yet even he informs us, that the fire which burnt on the top to enable seamen to anchor in sight of it, before coming near the shore, and so to avoid the difficulty of the navigation by night, was visible at a distance equal to about thirty-four English miles. Such a range for a lighthouse on the low shores of Egypt, would require a tower about 550 feet in height![27] Ammianus Marcellinus[28] and Pliny[29] are both very circumstantial in their notices of the Pharos as a beacon-light to guide seamen in approaching the coast of Egypt and port of Alexandria. The latter adds the interesting fact, that the cost of the Tower was reckoned at a sum equal to about L.390,000 of our money;[30] and both of them agree in stating that a light was shewn from it at night. Ammianus Marcellinus differs from all the other writers, in attributing the erection of the Tower to Queen Cleopatra. Pliny mentions in passing, that there were also lighthouses at Ostia and Ravenna.
[27] Bell. Judaic. iv., cap. 10, sec. 5. (Havercamp’s Josephus, tom. ii., p. 309. Amsterdam, 1726.) ἐν δεξιᾳ δε ἡ προσαγορευομενη Φαρος νησις προκειται, πῦργον ανἐχουσα μεγιστον, εκπυρσευοντα τοις καταπλὲουσιν, ἐπι τριακοσιους σταδιους, ὤς ἐν νυκτὶ πὂρρωθεν ὁρμιζοιντο προς την δυσχέρειαν του καταπλοῦ. And again, in the sixth Book of the same History (v. 4, sec. 3, tom. ii., p. 330), he says, και τὸ μεν σχημα παρεῴκει τῳ κατα τὴν Φαρον ἐκπυρσεὐοντι τοις επ’ Αλεξανδρείας πλέουσι. The height of the Tower in the text proceeds on the idea of the observer’s eye being ten feet above the sea.
[28] Ammianus Marcellinus, l. xxii., c. 16. (Leipsic 1807, tom. i., p. 306.) Hoc littus cum fallacibus et insidiosis accessibus affligeret antehac navigantes discriminibus plurimis, excogitavit in portu Cleopatra turrim excelsam, quae Pharos a loco ipso cognominatur, praelucendi navibus nocturna suggerens ministeria; cum, quondam ex Parthenio pelago venientes aut Libyco, per pandas oras et patulas, montium nullas speculas vel collium signa cernentes, harenarum inlisae glutinosae mollitiae frangerentur.
[29] Plinii Hist. Nat., xxxvi. 18. (Paris, 1723, p. 739.) Magnificatur et alia turris a rege facta in insula Pharo portum obtinente Alexandriae, quam constitisse octingentis talentis tradunt; magno animo (nequid omittamus) Ptolemai regis, quod in ea permiserit Sostrati Guidii Architecti structuræ ipsius nomen inscribi. Usus ejus, nocturno navium cursu ignes ostendere ad praenuncianda vada portûsque introïtum: quales, jam compluribus locis flagrant, ut Ostiae ac Ravennae. Periculum in continuatione ignium, ne sidus existimetur, quoniam è longinquo similis flammarum aspectus est.