CLAS 1120Q / ARCH 1707 THE SEVEN WONDERS OF THE ANCIENT WORLD

MWF 2 – 2:50 p.m. Rhode Island Hall 108 Prof. John Cherry

Class 23 March 17, 2014

The Pharos of Alexandria: Part 1 Upcoming dates to note:

— March 21: Third wring assignment due

— April 4: Third Quiz

— April 7, 9, 11: Student presentaons in class: Other Ancient Wonders

• A presentaon by pairs of students, illustrated by a powerpoint • 10-minute talk, followed by 5 minutes for quesons • Each pair to nofy me of their chosen ancient wonder in the week aer Spring Break

— April 14: One paragraph summary of intended term paper due

Alexandria

Giza plateau and pyramids Foundaon of Alexandria by Alexander the Great, Jan.- Mar. 331 BC

Plutarch, Life of Alexander, 26.3-10:

They say that aer his conquest of Egypt, Alexander resolved to found and leave behind him a large and populous Greek city which would bear his name. On the advice of his architects he was about to measure out and enclose a certain site, when during the night, as he was sleeping, he saw a remarkable vision. He thought he could see a man with very white hair and of venerable appearance standing beside him and speaking these lines:

Then there is an island in the stormy sea, In front of Egypt; they call it Pharos. (Homer, Odyssey 4.354)

He rose at once and went to Pharos, which at that me was sll an island a lile above the Canobic mouth of the Nile, but which has now been joined to the mainland by a causeway. When he saw that the site was eminently suitable (it is a strip of land similar to a fairly broad isthmus, running between a large lagoon and the sea which terminates in a great harbor), he exclaimed that Homer was admirable in other respects and was also an excellent architect, and ordered the plan of the city to be drawn in conformity with the terrain.

Since there was no chalk available, they used barley-meal to describe a rounded area on the dark soil… Plutarch, On the Fortune or Virtue of Alexander I, 328e

“Alexander established more than 70 poleis among barbarian peoples, and planted all Asia with Greek magistrates, and thus overcame its uncivilized and brush mode of life.” Alexandria

All of Alexander’s cies in the east had the same official name… …so there grew up popular names to disnguish them:

Alexandria-by-Egypt Alexandria Oxiana [on the River Oxus in Sogdiana = modern Termez?] Alexandria Ariana [in Aria = modern Herat] Alexandria Arachosia [in Arachosia = modern Ghazni or Kandahar?] Alexandria Eschate [“the farthest” = modern Chodjend] Alexandria Susiana [at the mouth of the River Tigris] Alexandria in the Caucasus Alexandria Bactra Alexandria Bucephala [on River Jhelum, named aer Bucephalas] Alexandria Troas [= Troy, but not founded by Alexander] Alexandria kat’Isson [= modern Alexandrea]

(About two dozen such names occur in our sources.) Cies supposedly founded by Alexander the Great Greek colonizaon vs. Alexander’s foundaons

Usually founded by a mother-city Founded by an individual, and all named aer him

Independent of the founding city, Subject to Alexander, via his legally autonomous satrap or governor

Mostly in coastal locaons Mostly well inland

Selers drawn mainly from a single Ethnically mixed populaons founding city in Greece The new city of Alexandria-by-Egypt

• The first of a number of Alexandrias founded by Alexander (Alexandria Eschate, Alexandria Oxiana, etc.) • Designed by Alexander’s architect Dinocrates of Rhodes

• Used the latest system of urban grid-planning, devised a century before Hippodamus of Miletus

• The city stood on the land between the sea and Lake Mareos

• City and Pharos island later linked by the heptastadion (“7 stade”) causeway to create two harbors

Another (unrealized) colossus: Dinocrates’s plan to carve Mt. Athos into a giganc seated statue of Alexander, holding an enre city in his hand Alexandria in the 1st century BC Maerten van Heemskerck’s vision of the Pharos

Correct: lighthouse on a rocky island; twin harbors; royal oversight Incorrect: exterior spiral ramp on lighthouse; sinuous heptastadion; mountainous interior

Salvador Dali, The Pharos of Alexandria Differing modern reconstrucons of the Pharos

• all rather similar • another harbor-monument wonder, intended to be impressive when approached by sea Some facts:

Building commenced under Ptolemy I Soter (305-282 BC), probably in 297 BC Completed under Ptolemy II Philadelphus (284-246 BC) — i.e., last of the Seven Wonders Cost (according to Pliny): 800 talents (1 talent silver = 928 oz @ $21.38/oz = ca. $16 million)

Paid for and dedicated by Sostratos of Knidos (Courer? Diplomat? Merchant?) Dedicatory inscripon, according to Strabo 8.25: Sostratos the Cnidian, friend of the sovereigns, dedicated this, for the safety of those who sail the seas Dedicatory inscripon, according to Lucian (2nd c. AD): Sostratos, the son of Dexiphanes, the Cnidian, dedicated this to the Savior Gods, on behalf of those who sail the seas

The ‘Savior Gods’ could refer to: • Ptolemy I and his wife Berenike (gods, because also pharaohs) • The Dioscuri (the heavenly twins Castor and Pollux), patron deies of navigaon

Saviour among the Greeks, this watchman of Pharos, was set up, lord Proteus, by Sostratus the Cnidian, son of Dexiphanes.

Since in Egypt there are no lookout-points or mountains as on the islands,

and the harbor stretches flat,

For that reason, cleaving the air sheer and steep,

this tower shines forth across countless leagues By day, and all night long the mariner running with the wave

will see the great fire blazing from its peak,

And though he may run to the Bull’s Horn itself, he would not miss

Zeus the Savior, O Proteus, in sailing hither.

Epigram on the Pharos by Posidippus, 3rd century BC The end of the Pharos

The Pharos is menoned or described in detail in various Arab historical sources:

• Badly damaged in an earthquake in AD 956

• The parally ruined structure is described in AD 1166 by the Arab traveler Abou Haggag Youssef Ibn Mohammed el-Badawi el-Andaloussi (lengthy extracts from el-Andaloussi’s account are given in Clayton & Price, pp. 153-155)

• “Destrucon” of the Pharos by an earthquake on 8 August 1303, according to a manuscript in the Monastery of Montpellier

• Another earthquake in 1323

• The Arab traveler Ibn Bauta visited in 1326 and 1349, on the laer occasion describing it “…in so ruinous a condion that it was not possible to enter it or climb it up to the doorway” What did the Pharos look like?

Sources of evidence:

• Extant Roman lighthouses, evidently copying the Pharos (which was the first)

• Representaons of the Pharos on mosaics

• Representaons of the Pharos on Roman coins

• Ancient descripons, especially by Diodorus Siculus (fl. 60-30 BC) Strabo (c. 64 BC – AD 21) The Elder Pliny (d. AD 79) • Underwater archaeology in the harbor of Alexandria

The Pharos at Abusir, Egypt Torre de Hércules, A Coruña, Galicia, Spain 30 miles SW of Alexandria Farum Briganum 66 feet high 180 feet tall Reign of Ptolemy II (285-246 BC) In existence by 2nd century AD A tomb, built as a scaled-down version of the Sll in use today Alexandrian Pharos, with which it is contemporary UNESCO World Heritage site since 2009

Mosaic from Olbia, Libya 4th century AD.

The arrival of St. Mark at Alexandria in AD 49, to found the church of Alexandria.

Passing the Pharos as his ship enters the harbor.

13th-century mosaic in St. Mark’s Cathedral, Venice. Statue of Zeus Soter, with trident

Tritons

Windows

Door, not at ground level

Approach ramp Isis Pharia (of the Pharos), as patroness of sailors, holding an inflated sail towards the Pharos Galley with an inflated sail passing the Pharos

General agreement that the Pharos was:

• a 3-ered structure • ca. 100 m in height, possibly as much as 117 m • first stage square with cylindrical core, 60 m • second stage octagonal, 30 m • third stage round, ca. 15 m to p of statue • equipped with highly polished bronze mirrors, to reflect a fire at the base Qait Bey Fort, Alexandria (1480)

Built on the former locaon of the Pharos, by now collapsed from earthquakes in 956, 1303, and 1323. Fort built on the plaorm of the lighthouse site, using some of the fallen stone.

In class on Friday, we will watch a Nova documentary about underwater excavaons in the Harbor of Alexandria — and what they have added to our knowledge of the Pharos of Alexandria.