Port Said Lighthouse () is one of the most important architectural and tourist landmarks in the city of

Port Said Port Said ( , , ) is a port city that lies in the northeast Egypt extending about along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, straddling the west bank of the northern mouth of the Suez Canal. The city is the capital city, capital of the Port S ...

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

. Considered a unique example for the evolution of architecture during the nineteenth century in the city, the lighthouse was designed by at the request of the

Khedive Khedive ( ; ; ) was an honorific title of Classical Persian origin used for the sultans and grand viziers of the Ottoman Empire, but most famously for the Khedive of Egypt, viceroy of Egypt from 1805 to 1914.Adam Mestyan"Khedive" ''Encyclopaedi ...

of Egypt and Sudan, Ismail the Magnificent. Construction was completed in 1869, one week prior to the inauguration of the

Suez Canal The Suez Canal (; , ') is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, Indo-Mediterranean, connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea through the Isthmus of Suez and dividing Africa and Asia (and by extension, the Sinai Peninsula from the rest ...

. The lighthouse was built to guide ships passing through the canal. The lighthouse has an octagonal shaped tower that is high.

History

From 1868 until the end of his reign, Khedive Ismail ordered the construction of lighthouses at different points across Egypt's Mediterranean coast. Among these, the lighthouse of Port Said had special significance owing to its connection to the

, the national infrastructure project undertaken during Ismail's reign. Ismail commissioned French industrialist and engineer François Coignet to design the lighthouse and oversee its construction. The lack of nearby stone quarries and the cost of importing stone from elsewhere led those in charge to become interested in concrete as a material. Coignet determined to use the novel technique of

reinforced concrete Reinforced concrete, also called ferroconcrete or ferro-concrete, is a composite material in which concrete's relatively low tensile strength and ductility are compensated for by the inclusion of reinforcement having higher tensile strength or ...

in the construction. The lighthouse was constructed by layering liquid concrete in thickness. To ensure the structural cohesion of the whole, iron wall ties were inserted. The application of concrete was doubly innovative: employed as a finish material, not merely a substance for filling masonry walls; and strengthened with the inset metal rods. Coignet employed this new technique he had experimented with several years earlier in the construction of his own home, resulting in the first large-scale reinforced concrete structure.Port-Saïd : Architectures XIXe-XXe siècles Broché – 21 avril 2011 The use of an electric arc lamp made it possible to display a consistent flashing light, and it was overall a state-of-the-art lighthouse at the time. Nothing of the original Port Said infrastructure remains except for the lighthouse. The buildup of silt along the coast of the port has left the lighthouse inland, where it can no longer serve its original purpose of guiding ships. In 2010, intellectuals called for it to be turned into a museum of maritime transport. In January 2011, the Port Said lighthouse was officially registered as a national monument in Egypt.

References

External links

* (in English)

(in English) {{DEFAULTSORT:Lighthouse of Port Said Lighthouses completed in 1869

Lighthouses in Asia Port Said Buildings and structures in Port Said Governorate 1869 establishments in Egypt

History

See also

References

External links