The Lighthouse of Alexandria

The History and Legacy of an Ancient Wonder of the World

By: Charles River Editors

Narrated by: Maria Chester

Length: 1 hr and 15 mins

Publisher's summary

• Includes historic accounts that describe the lighthouse.
• Explains the debates over how the lighthouse was built and operated and how it was destroyed.

"At the harbor of Alexandria stands the tower called Pharos, the first wonder. It is held together by glass and lead and is 600 yards high." (Epiphanius the Monk)

"The Pharos today is composed of four stages. The first, of a rectangular design, is remarkably built in rectangular cut stones, of which the joints are so well concealed that the whole seems to be formed of a single block of stone, remaining insensible to the ravages of time." (Al Bakri, a medieval traveler and writer)

Over 2,000 years ago, two ancient writers named Antipater of Sidon and Philo of Byzantium authored antiquity's most well-known tour guides. After the two Greeks had traveled around the Mediterranean, they wrote of what they considered to be the classical world's greatest construction projects. While there is still some question as to who actually authored the text attributed to Philo and when it was authored, their lists ended up comprising the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, igniting interest in the ones they chose and inspiring subsequent generations to identify their own era's Seven Wonders.

The youngest of the wonders also turned out to be the most practical and one of the longest lived, surviving into the late Middle Ages. It was a lighthouse built on the northern coast of Egypt, in Africa, at the Greek city founded in Alexander's name. It was the Pharos, the Great Lighthouse of Alexandria. Among antiquity's wonders, the Lighthouse of Alexandria was fairly unique in terms of both its purpose and its secular nature. While pyramids and statues served religious purposes in Egypt and Greece, and others were impressive works of art, the origins of the lighthouse were not even as a lighthouse at all.

©2012 Charles River Editors (P)2015 Charles River Editors

Informative book / poor narration

Out of 10 - Contents/Narration - 7/1

The book is small and concise.
Lots of dry facts for those interested in lighthouses.
However, the mode of narration might potentially be the source of a headache. It feels like the book is read by the robot who does not understand the concept of complex sentences. Extremely difficult to listen.