Although this species of architecture is not likely to have been so general in extreme antiquity, because it could not have been essentially necessary to any except to those nations who, from the proximity of their situation to the coast, or other circumstances, pursued maritime concerns; or to those whose connexions rendered the encouragement of the marine of other nations important. The oldest building of this description, which we believe to be upon record, is the famous Pharos erected on the Egyptian coast, which, being very low land, and exposed entirely to the almost constant west winds coming up the Mediterranean from the vast Atlantic, must, of necessity, have made the port of modern Alexandria, anciently called Dalmietta, very dangerous. It was originally erected by Ptolemy Philadelphus, for the encouragement and convenience of the Phœnicians, who were accounted the foreign factors of that empire; as the Egyptians possessed an unconquerable aversion to the sea, and therefore they never obtained its sovereignty: whilst the former people were the first who obtained the supremacy of that sea. The island upon which Pharos stood, in the time of Homer, in his simple geography and estimation, was said to be one day’s sail from the Delta; whereas, since the foundation of Alexandria, it was only a mile in distance, and was even joined to the mainland by a mole, having a bridge at each end; or according to some authors, in the middle. The tower was, if report be true, justly entitled to the appellation it obtained--one of the seven wonders of the world; and it is reported, that the light from it has been seen at the distance of a hundred miles; which, assuredly, appears improbable, because the convexity of the earth, we think, would not permit. Its height must have been, at least, 2,400 feet, or 800 yards from the base.