History Of Lighthouses
Ancient Roman lighthouses are among the best preserved, and best known examples of lighthouses from Ancient History. A famous example is the Tower of Hercules in A Coruña, Spain, and there is another at Dover, England which still stands to about half its original height. It must be remarked that lighthouses existed since the Hellenistic period, but it is mainly the Roman ones which have survived. 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 Caribbean 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.
Read more about History Of Lighthouses: Lighthouses in Ancient Times, Later Lighthouses, American Lighthouses
Famous quotes containing the words history of, history and/or lighthouses:
“[Men say:] “Don’t you know that we are your natural protectors?” But what is a woman afraid of on a lonely road after dark? The bears and wolves are all gone; there is nothing to be afraid of now but our natural protectors.”
—Frances A. Griffin, U.S. suffragist. As quoted in History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 4, ch. 19, by Susan B. Anthony and Ida Husted Harper (1902)
“We don’t know when our name came into being or how some distant ancestor acquired it. We don’t understand our name at all, we don’t know its history and yet we bear it with exalted fidelity, we merge with it, we like it, we are ridiculously proud of it as if we had thought it up ourselves in a moment of brilliant inspiration.”
—Milan Kundera (b. 1929)
“The whole fauna of human fantasies, their marine vegetation, drifts and luxuriates in the dimly lit zones of human activity, as though plaiting thick tresses of darkness. Here, too, appear the lighthouses of the mind, with their outward resemblance to less pure symbols. The gateway to mystery swings open at the touch of human weakness and we have entered the realms of darkness. One false step, one slurred syllable together reveal a man’s thoughts.”
—Louis Aragon (1897–1982)