There is excellent authority for stating that the first lighthouse ever
erected for the benefit of mariners was that built by the famous architect
Sostratus, by command of Ptolemy Philadelphus, King of Egypt, between
285-247 B.C. It was built near Alexandria, on an island called Pharos, and
there was expended upon it about eight hundred talents, or over a million
of dollars.
Ptolemy has been much commended by some ancient writers for his liberality
in allowing the architect to inscribe his name instead of his own. The
inscription reads: "Sostratus, son of Dexiphanes, to the protecting
deities, for the use of seafaring people." This tower was deemed one of
the seven wonders of the world and was thought of sufficient grandeur to
immortalize the builder.
It appears from Lucian, however, that Ptolemy does not deserve any praise
for disinterestedness on this score, or Sostratus any great credit for his
honesty, as it is stated that the latter, to engross in after times the
glory of the structure, caused the inscription with his own name to be
carved in the marble, which he afterward covered with lime and thereon put
the king's name.
In process of time the lime decayed, and the inscription on the marble
alone remained.