History of lighthouses
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Ancient Roman lighthouses are among the best preserved, and best known examples of lighthouses from Ancient History. One example is the Hercules Tower in A Coruña, Spain. It must be remarked that lighthouses existed long before the Roman Empire. One of the oldest lighthouses in North America must be El Castillo in Tulum in Mexico. This aid to navigation guided ancient Mayan mariners from the Carribean Sea through a dangerous reef passage and probably dates from the 13th century. Other ancient Mayan lighthouse sites have been identified on Cozumel and Isla Mujeres.
[edit] Lighthouses in ancient times
Before the development of clearly defined ports, mariners were guided by fires built on hilltops. Since raising the fire would improve the visibility, placing the fire on a platform became a practice that led to the development of the lighthouse. In antiquity, the lighthouse functioned more as an entrance marker to ports than as a warning signal for reefs and promontories, unlike many modern lighthouses.
Ancient evidence exists in many forms. Written descriptions and drawings of the Pharos of Alexandria provide information about lighthouses. Ancient remains at A Coruña and Dover give insight into construction; other evidence about lighthouses exists in of depictions on coins and mosaics, of which many represent the lighthouse at Ostia. Coins from Alexandria, Ostia, and Laodicea in Syria exist.
While the evidence that exists provides insight into the exterior structure of these buildings, there are many gaps in evidence concerning less visible aspects. The remains at A Coruña and Dover help determine how each lighthouse functioned, though one must make some assumptions to determine how beacons were illuminated at Dover. While one can determine the materials used at these few surviving lighthouses, written descriptions of other structures do not describe what types of stone the builders used, how architects carried out the construction of the buildings, and who worked on the lighthouses. Little information exists about the methods used to light and carry fuel up to the beacons. Academics assume that firemen added combustible liquids to reduce the expenditure on fuel and keep the light steady during gales, but we have little proof. One modern source makes the unlikely statement that priests tended the fires of ancient lighthouses. It seems like lighthouses would have required more labor for transporting the fuel and maintaining the flame. At Cape Hatteras in the 1870's, one keeper and two assistants kept themselves amply busy by tending much more sophisticated flames.
While artistic representations assist us in re-creating a visual image of lighthouses, they present many problems. Depictions of lighthouses on coins, carvings, and mosaics present an inconsistent view of the actual appearances of the structures. Most show a building with two or three stories that decreases in width as it ascends. The limited size of coins could cause the producer of the coin to alter the image to fit on the surface. The similarity in depictions of lighthouses suggests a conventionalization of details rather than accurate representations of specific beacons. None of these media provide information about the interior placement of stairs and ramps in the buildings.
