A PHAROS IN VIRGINIA
The Masons Built a Replica of the Pharos in Alexandria, Virginia, USA in the 20’s. Fascinating!!
I wonder if the Masons built the Pharos in Egypt in 300BC?
It was once a 7th wonder of the Ancient world.
Background added here, not part of the post as published.
The memorial: ground broken 1922, cornerstone laid 1923 with the silver trowel Washington used on the cornerstone of the US Capitol, dedicated 1932, 333 feet. The three stages of the tower carry Doric, then Ionic, then Corinthian pilasters, and the finial is shaped as a flame. Most accounts, including the architectural record, name the Pharos of Alexandria as the model; a competing account names the Roman lighthouse at Ostia. Alexandria, Virginia takes its name from the Alexander family, Scots who held the land from 1669, not from Alexandria in Egypt.
The original: begun under Ptolemy I and finished under Ptolemy II around 280 BC, built by Sostratus of Cnidus. Earthquakes brought it down between the tenth and fourteenth centuries, and in 1477 Sultan Qaitbay built a fort on the spot out of the rubble. On the Masons — the earliest lodge minutes are Scottish, from the end of the sixteenth century, and the first Grand Lodge was formed in London in 1717.
Nobody alive has seen the Pharos. The standard image of it is a reconstruction drawn by Hermann Thiersch in 1909, and later buildings, this one included, were modelled on that drawing rather than on the lighthouse.