"Ptolemy'S Mirror" and the Pharos

We read in several ancient authors, that Ptolemy Euergetes caused to be placed in the tower of the Pharos (the lighthouse built by his father), at Alexandria, a Mirror which reflected all of lower Egypt and the sea to a distance of 100 leagues, so that when seated in the tower, he could note the advance of an enemy's fleet by sea, or any disturbance in his kingdom on land. Abulfeda, in his description of Egypt, says that the mirror was of Chinese iron, and, that soon after the Mohammedan conquest, the Christians destroyed it by stratagem. Buffon thinks that by Chinese iron Abulfeda means polished steel. The story of this wonderful mirror has been very generally treated as a fable; but some celebrated opticians have been so staggered by the positive terms in which the facts stand recorded, that they hesitate discrediting it altogether. One says, "After perusing Father Abbot's proofs and illustrations, no one need blush for his philosophy in a belief in the actual existence of the long-reputed fable of Ptolemy's mirror." The Pharos of Alexandria, accounted one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, was the first light-bearing tower of which we have record. It was built of white marble, several stories high, each story diminishing in size toward the top; the top story had a gallery running round it, supported on the outer circle of the story beneath. The ascent inside was such a gentle incline that horses and chariots could easily accomplish it. The cost of the Pharos is said to have been 155,000 pounds sterling; it was built by order of Ptolemy Philadelphus (309-247); the inscription read, "King Ptolemy to the Saviour Gods, for the use of those who travel by sea." According to the Arab.historian Abdel-Atif, this wonderful structure was still existing in the thirteenth century, but no remains of it are now to be seen. The Pharos stood on a rock detached from the extremity of the island of Pharos in the bay of Alexandria, from which it takes its name; thus originated the generic name Pharos in the classical languages for "lighthouse." The lighthouse was connected with the island by a wall, and with the mainland by the Heptastadium. The name of this causeway, which served as an aqueduct as well as a road, was derived from its length of seven stadia, about three-quarters of a mile. The old lighthouse of Alexandria now occupies the site of the ancient Pharos. Modern Alexandria is largely built upon the Heptastadium.