The lighthouse of Alexandria
			On that night, Alexander the Great settles on the shores of the city that will become Alexandria. During his sleep he gets suddenly awoken by an old gray-haired man. The old man points the island of Pharos and vanishes into thin air. Alexander looks at the island and immediately realises the strategic importance of this place...
		After Alexander's death, a new dynasty of pharaohs takes the power in Egypt; The Ptolemies. This new dynasty was Greek but to keep the unity of Egypt, they also kept the Egyptian traditions. Ptolemy I wanted to fulfil Alexander's dream and started the construction of Alexandria.. The city became rapidly a very important city. Following Alexander's vision, Ptolemy I also started the construction of a gigantic lighthouse to protect the ships against the dangerous Alexandrine shores. This way, Alexandria would become a commercial centre between the eastern world and the Western world. Ptolemy I never saw his project complete because he died before the lighthouse was finished.. The lighthouse is completed under Ptolemy II, pharaoh of Egypt. The lighthouse consisted in three different levels. The lighthouse, located on the island of Pharos, was about 120 meters high, probably one of the highest constructions ever built during the Antiquity. The fire burning at the top of it could be seen at 55 km around. All merchants coming to Alexandria were struck by the magnificence of this building. The lighthouse rapidly became a symbol of the city and also a source of inspiration for painters and sculptors. The lighthouse became one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Unfortunately, several earthquakes damaged repeatedly the lighthouse and a part of the antique city. The top floors fell first into the sea. Later (supposedly in the 14th century), the last standing part of the building also fell into the sea. The lighthouse became a myth because nobody could really prove it had existed, excepted people who had seen it. After the Muslim invasion, the Qaytbay fort was built where the Pharos stood destroying any evidence of its existence.
						In 96, the Egyptian government decided to build a new concrete dike in Alexandria's bay to protect Qaytbay fort from dangerous waves. Archaeologists immediately protested because they knew that a part of the Antique city was still under the water. After long negotiations, a team of French archaeologists got the authorisation to search the sea bottoms.
				They rapidly found a incredibly amount of objects like sphinxes, statues, columns dating from Ramses II until the Ptolemy period. French archaeologists were also looking for some evidence that would prove the existence of the lighthouse. They rapidly found huge blocks in the water, too big and too heavy to be part of an old temple or any other construction. The myth became reality ... With the help of computers, they tried to find the structure of the fallen lighthouse. They rapidly discovered that stones were lying in a line, with bigger stones at the begin and smaller ones at the end. The existence of the Pharos was at last proved. The archaeologists directly contacted the press which unveiled to the world another one of Egypt's secrets.