Reconstruction Of Five-Story Patara Lighthouse Built By Roman Emperor Nero – Begins

Conny Waters - AncientPages.com - The ancient Patara Lighthouse will be reconstructed on its original stones. Lighthouse - built by the Roman Emperor Nero between A.D. 64 and 65 - was as high as a five-story apartment building.

Ruins of ancient city of Patara, Turkey

The Patara Lighthouse is located in the Kaş district of southern Turkey's Antalya province. Patara - one of the six big cities of the Lycia Union - is an ancient city with a long history. It was also one of Lycia's major naval and trading ports, located at the mouth of the Xanthos River.

The city of Patara, along with the rest of Lycia, surrendered to Alexander the Great in 333 BC.

During the Wars of the Diadochi, which occurred between 322 and 275 BC, Patara was occupied in turn by Antigonus and Demetrius, before finally falling to the Ptolemies.

See also:

Patara -‘The Chosen City’ Of Ancient Lycia

Viking Sword Found In Patara May Have Belonged To A Varangian Guard

Havva Işık, the professor who will be leading the archaeological works on the lighthouse noted that the structure is not the earliest-known lighthouse, but the earliest lighthouse whose original material remains," reports Daily Sabah.

"The earliest of the lighthouses is the Lighthouse of Alexandria, which also gives its name to these structures. However, Patara Lighthouse is the only lighthouse that can be reconstructed with its original material," Işık said, adding that it is one of Turkey's most important cultural heritage.

The Patara Lighthouse was introduced to the world by William Gell, who carried out research visits on behalf of the Society of Dilettanti – an association examining ancient Greek and Roman arts – between 1812 and 1813, while the term lighthouse was first used by Turkish professor Fahri Işık who inaugurated the excavations in 1988.

The lighthouse consists of two main sections – a podium and a tower – while the tower consists of two interlocking cylindrical structures connected by a spiral-shaped ladder. The wall thickness is 1.2 meters (4 feet). The tower will reach a height of about 26 meters (85 feet) on the podium after it is rebuilt.

THA photo

Patara's oracle at the renowned temple of Apollo, which has not been discovered yet, was said to rival that of Delphi and the temple equaled the reputation of the famous temple on the island of Delos. It was believed that Apollo lived on Delos during summer but spent the winters in Patara.

The city surrendered to Alexander the Great in 333 B.C. During the Hellenistic Period, the Lycian Council Building was built. It is regarded as a symbol of democracy in Lycia and a sign of its ancient glory.

The Roman general Brutus captured Patara in 42 B.C. The Lycian settlement was then annexed by Emperor Claudius and turned into a magnificent Roman site with mesmerizing beaches along the Mediterranean Sea.

The city later came under Byzantine and Ottoman control.

Written by Conny Waters - AncientPages.com Staff Writer