The east side of the mole became the Great Harbour, now an open bay on the west side lay the port of Eunostos, with its inner basin Kibotos now vastly enlarged to form the modern harbour. The word became generalized in modern Greek (φάρος ‘fáros’), and was loaned into Spanish (‘faro’). The etymology of “Pharos” is uncertain, but may derive from "pharaoh", which originally meant "big house". Alexandria and Pharos were later connected by a mole spanning more than 1,200 metres (0.75 miles), which was called the Heptastadion ("seven stadia"-a stadion was a Greek unit of length measuring approximately 180 m). In 332 BC Alexander the Great founded the city of Alexandria on an isthmus opposite Pharos. Pharos was a small island located on the western edge of the Nile Delta. ģD reconstruction of the Lighthouse of Alexandria In 2016 the Ministry of State of Antiquities in Egypt had plans to turn submerged ruins of ancient Alexandria, including those of the Pharos, into an underwater museum. In 1994, a team of French archaeologists dove into the water of Alexandria's Eastern Harbour and discovered some remains of the lighthouse on the sea floor. It was the third-longest surviving ancient wonder (after the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus and the extant Great Pyramid of Giza), surviving in part until 1480, when the last of its remnant stones were used to build the Citadel of Qaitbay on the site.
The lighthouse was severely damaged by three earthquakes between 9 AD and became an abandoned ruin. One of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, for many centuries it was one of the tallest man-made structures in the world. It has been estimated to have been at least 100 metres (330 ft) in overall height. The Lighthouse of Alexandria, sometimes called the Pharos of Alexandria ( / ˈ f ɛər ɒ s/ Ancient Greek: ὁ Φάρος τῆς Ἀλεξανδρείας, contemporary Koine Greek pronunciation: ), was a lighthouse built by the Greek Ptolemaic Kingdom of Ancient Egypt, during the reign of Ptolemy II Philadelphus (280–247 BC). Square (below), octagonal (middle) and cylindrical (top)