The name Pharos, the small island in front of the coast where Alexandria was built, already appears in the IV book of the Odissey (vv. 351 ff.) in a dialogue between the two heroes Telemachus, son of Ulysses, and Menelaus, king of Sparta.

The Lighthouse, built at the time of Ptolemy Il Philadelphus (285-246 B.C.) by Sostratus of Cnidus, was considered one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. It stood where the fort of the sultan Quait Bey was (end of the 15th century A.D.), on the eastern end of the island of Pharos; its structure consisted of three floors, the first quadrangular, the second octagonal and the third cylindrical, reaching a total height of about 120 m. Inside it, in the highest section surmounted by a statue of Zeus, burned a perennial fire whose light was concentrated and projected by a set of mirrors, so that it could be seen from a great distance. Already in ancient times the Lighthouse risked collapsing several times, however, even after the violent earthquakes in the early the 15^th century A.D. a some remains were still left.