Unfortunately, no one knows exactly what the Lighthouse of Alexandria looked like. The descriptions from most ancient writers are “vague, confusing, and conflicting,” according to the World History Encyclopedia. But overall, most sources agree that the lighthouse had three floors and was white.

Hellenistic Alexandria writes that in 1909, Hermann Thiersch offered a reconstruction of the building’s architecture, showing the different shapes of the three levels. The first level was a cuboid, the second level was octagonal, and the third level was circular. Overall, it’s believed that the lighthouse’s total height was between 350-450ft high. The lowest section reportedly held the stables and government offices. The octagonal section was for tourists and offered a view from the balcony, and the top section is where the light would reside, according to ThoughtCo.

Most of the “substantial descriptions” come from Arab historians like Al-Mas’udi, Al-Gharnati, and Al-Idrisi. Al-Balawi also described the lighthouse as having a long ramp that spiraled clockwise, “wide enough for two pack animals to pass.” And in 1182 or 1183, Ibn Jubayr wrote that the Lighthouse of Alexandria “can be seen for more than 70 miles, and is of great antiquity. It is most strongly built in all directions and competes with the skies in height. Description of it falls short, the eyes fail to comprehend it, and words are inadequate, so vast is the spectacle.”

As early as the fourth century BCE, historians and geographers started compiling lists of spectacular sights in the world. World History Encyclopedia writes that Herodotus, Philo of Byzantium, and Callimachus of Cyrene all created shortlists of sights to see. But since the Colossus of Rome and the Lighthouse of Alexandria are the last two “accepted into the canon,” it’s believed that the list we regard today as the “official” list of the Seven Wonders of the World was created around the second century BCE.

The Seven Wonders of the World are as follow: the Great Pyramid of Giza, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, the Statue of Zeus at Olympia, the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, the Colossus of Rhodes, and the Lighthouse of Alexandria.

But according to “The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World” by Peter A Clayton and Martin Price, the Seven Wonders existed simultaneously for only about 50 years.

In 226 BCE, the Colossus of Rhodes was brought down by an earthquake and although the Rhodians wanted to reconstruct it, it ended up remaining a pile of broken bronze, and the Seven Wonders of the World never stood at the same time ever again. By the time the list of the Seven Wonders of the World became “crystallized” during the Renaissance, few of the wonders remained.

Over the course of 1,500 years, the Lighthouse of Alexandria withstood numerous earthquakes. The University of Chicago writes that one of the first earthquakes that dismantled the lighthouse occurred in 796 CE, and left only the first level standing. By 875 CE, a “wooden cupola” was built on the top of the lighthouse, so it’s believed that by that point, the lighthouse was used as a watchtower instead.

Earthquakes in 950 and 955 CE also brought down parts of the lighthouse, but those in 1303 and 1323 CE were responsible for some of the worst damage. By the time Ibn Battuta traveled to Alexandria in 1326, what remained of the first level was “partly in ruins” and by 1349, the lighthouse was “in such a state of ruin that [it] was impossible to enter.” An earthquake in 1375 is believed to have finally reduced the lighthouse to rubble. But according to the World History Encyclopedia, the Lighthouse of Alexandria was given “regular repairs and extension” in its lifetime, including the addition of a domed mosque to the top part around 1000 CE.

Between 1477 and 1479 CE, the remaining stones of the lighthouse were used by Sultan Abu Al-Nasr Sayf ad-Din Al-Ashraf Qaitbay to build the Qait Bey Fort on Pharos, also known as the Citadel of Qaitbay. According to Alexandria, the fort was part of Sultan Qaitbay’s coastal defenses against the Ottomans.

In 1968, Abu El-Saadat was given a grant from UNESCO to describe the architectural fragments in the seabed, with a focus on what could potentially be a fragment of the Lighthouse of Alexandria. Honor Frost and Vladimir Nesterov were also invited by the Egyptian government, and together the three of them compiled a list of 17 different fragments of the Pharos lighthouse in the seabed, according to Underwater Archaeology in Egypt. However, Frost noted that if they were to do a complete survey, the number would be “multiplied a hundred-fold.”

According to UNESCO, due to the War of Attrition between Egypt, Israel, Jordan, and Palestine, the coastal area around Alexandria was made “a military zone” and archeological investigations had to be put on hold. But despite the delay, the report by Abu El-Saadat, Frost, and Nesterov “laid the groundwork for later excavations of the sites.”

However, before those excavations could start, sea erosion of the Qait Bey Fort began to threaten the remains of the Lighthouse of Alexandria, though it was technically an attempt to keep the erosion at bay that threatened the archeological remains.

In the late 1990s, an underwater museum was proposed so that the public could witness the sunken remains of the Lighthouse of Alexandria. According to Smithsonian Magazine, although the plan was put on hold in 2011 after the Egyptian revolution, plans were revived in 2015. It’s believed that by making the site a museum, and even a potential World Heritage site, the remains of the Lighthouse of Alexandria can be protected and monitored against pollution and poachers. In 2020, Egypt’s parliament also ratified a bill that would impose a fine of $63,850 on anyone who “acquires or sells an antiquity or part of it outside Egypt” in an effort to dissuade archeological poachers. There was also the hope that the museum could help revive tourism in Alexandria in addition to providing for the opportunity for further research on the archeological remains of the Lighthouse of Alexandria and other sunken remains.

Unfortunately, Al-Monitor writes that poor resources have prevented the implementation of the underwater museum for years. However, in 2021, Alexandra University announced a new project titled Underwater Heritage, which hopes to excavate underwater artifacts around the eastern port of Alexandria.