IiE i>E Pharos 



HecbrruJies faiiea en IJU/- l^JS 

 par G.JONI>£T 



Lost Harbors 



Jondet's chart drawn in 1911 details the 

 submerged breal<waters and moles (in blue) of 

 the Minoan port of A-ur near Alexandria, 

 shown here in a painting of 1472. The 

 ancient port dwarfed many modern ones. 



The oldest known artificial harbor in the world was near the 

 present site of Alexandria, at A-ur, on the Canopic branch of the 

 Nile, and it was here that the voyages of Seneferu came to an end 

 about 3000 B.C. By 2000 b.c. the site of A-ur was lost and the Great 

 Harbor of Pharos was built nearby ; it was on a colossal scale which 

 dwarfs many of our ports today. Its layout and the skillful use of 

 the configuration of the sea bed might have been the work of a 

 modern harbor engineer. Possibly this work of genius was built by 

 the Minoans who were the dominant sea power at the time; even 

 so, it could not have been built without the co-operation of the 

 reigning Pharaoh, possibly Sensuret. 



When M. Gaston Jondet investigated the submerged ruins of 

 the Great Harbor of Pharos between 19 10 and 191 5, he found that 

 it had been formed by joining the island of Pharos to the rock of 

 Abu Bakar with a series of breakwaters, thus enclosing two basins 

 with a total area of more than three hundred acres. The most 

 amazing parts of this system were the two parallel breakwaters, the 

 outer one of which faced the open sea, and the inner one separating 

 the basins. The breakwaters were each 8500 feet long, 200 feet wide, 

 30 feet high, and were situated 650 feet apart. Each one was faced 

 with a wall 40 feet thick, and the space between the walls was 

 filled with large blocks. 



The upper surface of both breakwaters had a slight camber, and 

 was made of flagstones often fifteen to twenty feet across, some of 

 which were arranged in a typically Minoan pattern. No cement or 

 mortar was used anywhere in the harbor; the large blocks, quarried 

 at Mex, were packed in with sand and small stones. There is no 

 need here to go into the details of the wharfs and quays which 

 surrounded this magnificent port, but one cannot help agreeing 

 with M. Jondet when he said that "it was the work of a realistic 

 genius." 



All attempts to find records of the construction of the Port of 

 Pharos have failed. By the time Alexander reached it, it had already 

 disappeared beneath the waves. Having just destroyed Tyre, he 



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