A wonder rises again<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The operation is part of thePHAROS program, carried out under the scientific supervision of archaeologist and architect Isabelle Hairy<\/a> of France\u2019s CNRS. <\/p>\n\n\n\n According to La Fondation Dassault Syst\u00e8mes, the mission successfully lifted 22 of the lighthouse\u2019s largest blocks from the water so they can be studied, scanned, and added to a larger digital reconstruction effort.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Some of these stones weigh roughly 80 to 90 tons. Imagine moving something heavier than a loaded city bus while waves, salt, and fragile archaeology all get a vote. It is slow work for a reason.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The lighthouse once stood at the entrance to Alexandria\u2019s Great Harbor, where the medieval Qaitbay Fort now rises. CEAlex<\/a> says the underwater site includes architectural blocks, statuary, and hard stone fragments such as granite, quartzite, marble, limestone, and other materials, many of them imported from southern Egypt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Lighthouse of Alexandria was built at the beginning of the third century BCE and stood about 100 meters tall, according to the foundation\u2019s account of the project. Its beacon helped guide sailors along a dangerous coastline and helped make Alexandria a key hub of Mediterranean trade<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But the same coast that made the city powerful also made it vulnerable. CEAlex notes that the site sank beneath the Mediterranean along with the ruins it carried because of subsidence affecting Alexandria\u2019s coast since antiquity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That detail feels especially modern. Around the world, coastal heritage sites are under growing pressure from flooding, erosion, and rising seas, and a 2022 study in Nature Climate Change found that African natural and cultural heritage sites face increasing exposure to coastal hazards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n By 2050, the number of exposed sites could more than triple under high-emissions scenarios, according to the researchers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What happens after the blocks reach dry land? For the most part, the answer is not guesswork. The team plans to scan the pieces through detailed photogrammetry, then hand the data to volunteer engineers from La Fondation Dassault Syst\u00e8mes, who will analyze and reposition them virtually like a giant archaeological puzzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The goal is to create a digital twin of the lost lighthouse. This way, researchers can test ideas about how the structure was built, how it may have collapsed, and where individual blocks might have belonged before time and the sea scattered them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n More than 100 blocks have already been digitized underwater over the past decade, the foundation said. CEAlex also reports that since 2012 it has used photogrammetry to build a precise 3D model of the underwater site, with thousands of blocks recorded in its database as of 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There is a big difference between recovering heritage<\/a> and stripping the seabed for display. UNESCO\u2019s 2001 Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage says underwater heritage should be protected for humanity, and it encourages responsible, non-intrusive access when that does not put sites at risk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Its rules also favor nondestructive survey methods before recovery, unless excavation is needed for scientific study or protection. That is why projects like PHAROS matter beyond one famous monument. They show how advanced technology<\/a> can help researchers preserve a site\u2019s story instead of simply removing its most dramatic pieces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There is also a public side to this. A faithful digital model could let students, museum visitors, and curious readers explore the lighthouse without diving into a protected archaeological zone or disturbing the marine environment around it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Lighthouse of Alexandria was more than a beautiful tower. It was infrastructure, a trade tool, a safety system, and a symbol of power in a city where Greek and Egyptian traditions met in stone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That is what makes the recovered blocks so valuable. A doorway can tell researchers about engineering. A threshold can hint at traffic, ritual, and daily use. Even a damaged slab can become evidence when it is scanned, compared, and placed back into a larger pattern.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At the end of the day, the sea did not return a complete wonder. It returned pieces. But with the right tools, and enough caution, those pieces may finally show us how one of the ancient world\u2019s greatest structures really worked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The official press release was published on La Fondation Dassault Syst\u00e8mes<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Archaeologists have brought 22 massive stone blocks from the ancient Lighthouse of Alexandria out of the Mediterranean, reopening one of … <\/p>\nAlso Read: Russia wants a fighter jet so fast that no pilot may be able to fly it, and that turns the cockpit into the strangest problem<\/a><\/h4>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
Why the sea matters<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Digital twin archaeology<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"Massive](\"https:\/\/okdiario.com\/techy\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/lighthouse-alexandria-archaeology-recovered-blocks-pharos-1.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
Not treasure hunting<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
A city built on light<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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