Listed 4 sub titles with search on: Information about the place for destination: "FAROS Island EGYPT".
Total results on 6/4/2001: 66 for Pharos.
(Pharos). A small island off the coast of Egypt. When Alexander the Great planned the city of Alexandria, on the coast opposite to Pharus, he caused the island to be united to the coast by a mole seven stadia in length, thus forming the two harbours of the city. The island was chiefly famous for the lofty tower built upon it by Ptolemy II. for a light-house, whence the name of pharus was applied to all similar structures.
This text is cited Oct 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Pharos (Pharos, Strab. xvii. p. 791, seq.; Steph. B. s. v.: Eth. Pharios),
a long narrow strip of rock lying off the northern coast of Aegypt, having the
New Port of Alexandreia E. and the Old Harbour SW. Its name is said to have been
derived from a certain pilot of Menelaus, who, on his return from the Trojan War,
dial there from a serpent's bite. Pharos is mentioned in the Odyssey (iv. 355),
and is described as one day's sail from Aegypt. This account has caused considerable
perplexity, since Pharos is actually rather less than a mile from the seaboard
of the Delta; and it is not probable that the land, in the course of centuries,
has advanced or the sea receded materially. It is perfectly intelligible, however,
if we suppose the author of the Odyssey to mean by Aegyptus, not the country itself
but its river, since the Pharos is even now nearly a day's sail from the Canopic
arm of the Nile. Any other theory is untenable; for this portion of the coast
of the Delta consists of rocky bars and shelves, which remain unchanged, and,
though its surface has been heightened, its superficial area has not been materially
enlarged since the country was peopled. Pharos was inhabited by fishermen under
the Pharaohs of Aegypt; but it first became a place of importance under the Macedonian
kings. During his survey of the coast, B.C. 332, Alexander the Great perceived
that the island would form, with the help of art, an excellent breakwater to the
harbour of his projected capital. He accordingly caused its southern extremity
to be connected with the mainland by a stone mole seven stadia, or about an English
mile, in length, which from this circumstance was called the Heptastadium or Sevenfurlong
Bridge. At either end the mole was left open for the passage of ships, and the
apertures were covered by suspension bridges. In later times a street of houses,
erected on the mole itself, converted the island of Pharos into a suburb of Alexandreia,
and a considerable portion of the modern city stands on the foundations of the
old Heptastadium.
Yet, long after its junction with the Delta, Pharos was spoken of
as an island (he palai nesos, Aelian, H. An. ix. 21; toproteron nedos, Zonar.
iv. 10). The southern portion of this rocky ledge (choiras) was the more densely
populated; but the celebrated lighthouse, or the Tower of the Pharos, stood at
the NE. point, directly in a line with point Pharillon, on the eastern horn of
the New Port. The lighthouse was erected, at a cost of 800 talents, in the reign
of Ptolemy I., but was not completed until that of his successor Philadelphus.
Its architect was Sostratus of Cnidus, who, according to Pliny (xxxvi. 12. s.
18), was permitted by his royal patron to inscribe his own name upon its base.
There is indeed another story, in which it is related that Sostratus, being forbidden
to engrave his name on his work, secretly cut it in deep letters on a stone of
the building, which he then adroitly covered with some softer and perishable material,
on which were inscribed the style and titles of Ptolemy. Thus a few generations
would read the name of the king, but posterity would behold the authentic impress
of the architect. (Strab. xvii. p. 791; Suidas, s. v. Ladpos; Steph. B. s. v.;
Lucian, de Conscrib. Hist. c. 62.) Pharos was the seat of several temples, the
most conspicuous of which was one dedicated to Hephaestos, standing near the northern
extremity of the Heptastadium.
That Pharos, in common with many of the Deltaic cities, contained
a considerable population of Jews, is rendered probable by the fact that here
the translators of the Hebrew Scriptures resided during the progress of their
work. (Joseph. Antiq. xii. 2. § 13.) Julius Caesar established a colony at Pharos,
less perhaps to recruit a declining population than with a view to garrison a
post so important as regarded the turbulent Alexandrians. (Caesar, B. Civ. iii.
112.) Subsequently the island seems to have been comparatively deserted, and inhabited
by fishermen alone. (Montfaucon, Supr le Phare d'Alexandrie, Mem. de l' Acad.
des Inscript. ix. p. 285.)
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited July 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
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