A bronze ring brings back the lost face of the Lighthouse of Alexandria

An underwater archaeologist has recovered a bronze signet ring depicting the Lighthouse of Alexandria in the submerged harbor of Alexandria, Egypt. This is the first image of the monument ever found on an artifact of this kind. The report comes from Archaeology Magazine, originating from Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities.

At present, this is the only available source for the news: no independent confirmation is available at the time of publication. However, it is an institutional source — the Egyptian ministry responsible for antiquities, from which the information reported by the magazine originates — which remains the primary reference for archaeological finds made within its own territory.

The discovery took place in a submerged harbor, an underwater site that for years has been yielding artifacts linked to the ancient city of Alexandria. The uniqueness of this object lies in its function: a signet ring, that is, a personal item intended to stamp an image onto materials such as wax or clay, bearing the engraved profile of the Lighthouse. The available sources do not specify the precise dating of the ring nor the exact context of its discovery within the harbor area.

The value of the find, according to the report, lies precisely in its being the first depiction of the Lighthouse ever recovered on an object of this kind: information that for now rests on a single source, pending any more detailed scientific publications on the artifact, its dating and the context of the discovery. The Lighthouse of Alexandria, built in antiquity on the island of Pharos and counted among the seven wonders of the ancient world, has not survived to this day: its only known visual records so far came from coins and literary descriptions, not from personal items such as a signet.

As of now, it remains a single object recovered from the seabed of the harbor of Alexandria, described by Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities as depicting the famous Lighthouse, and described as unprecedented of its kind. Further studies may confirm or correct the details regarding the dating and archaeological context of the artifact.