by Sostratus of Cnidus,[1] at the cost, it is said, of eight hundred talents; and though Pliny doubts the value of such buildings, and seems to think of them rather as snares to the navigator,[2] Cæsar fully approved of the Alexandrian one.[3] The upper storeys had windows, looking seaward; and fires therein at night lighted ships into the harbour. A few similar structures are mentioned in ancient history as those at Ostia, Ravenna, Brundusium, Capreæ, and Gessoriacum (Boulogne). In England, it is believed that we have remains of two similar structures—the Pharos in Dover Castle, and at Moel Van in Flintshire.
Upon the front of the Alexandrian Pharos there was written the appropriate inscription: "King Ptolemy to the God the Saviour, for the benefit of sailors."
Canal over the Isthmus. More than one of the followers of Ptolemy I. pursued the same course, and encouraged their subjects in the promotion of commerce. Thus Philadelphus, his son, made a fresh attempt to cut a canal a hundred cubits in breadth, between Arsinoe (on the Red Sea, not far from Suez) to the Pelusiac or eastern branch of the Nile. But though he failed to carry out his plan, as Necho had done two centuries before,[4] he built on the south-western shores of the Red Sea the port of Berenice, so that goods from Alexandria could be carried on camels' backs for shipment, either from Myos Hormus, or from this new port; while stations were erected on the road, so as to facilitate the commercial intercourse between the Mediterranean and
