A bronze ring pulled from Alexandria’s sunken harbor carries an image of the lost lighthouse

A bronze signet ring engraved with an image of the Lighthouse of Alexandria has been recovered from the seabed of the city’s Eastern Harbor, which Egypt’s tourism and antiquities ministry calls the first known depiction of the Pharos on a seal ring. Divers from the European Institute for Underwater Archaeology, directed by the French archaeologist Franck Goddio, brought it up from the submerged royal island of Antirhodos. The institute announced the find on October 7, 2026.

Save more, waste less: The Cool Down’s newsletter sends smart, simple changes that help you and the planet in your everyday life.

Subscribe to The Cool Down →

We may earn a commission if you sign up.

The ring is small, but it points at something large. The Pharos was one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world, and it fell centuries before photography, so every image of it is an artist’s or engraver’s rendering.

Antirhodos and the team that recovered the ring

Antirhodos was an island in the royal quarters of Alexandria’s Portus Magnus, now beneath the Eastern Harbor. According to Archaeology magazine, the ring was recovered by a team from Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities and the European Institute for Underwater Archaeology. The Art Newspaper reports that the excavation is directed by Goddio, supported by the Hilti Foundation, and carried out with Egypt’s ministry of tourism and antiquities, which issued its own statement on social media.

Hisham El-Leithy of the Supreme Council of Antiquities is the Egyptian official named in Archaeology’s report. Tourism and Antiquities Minister Sherif Fathy visited the team’s research vessel on the Monday before the announcement, watched the underwater work and inspected the ring, according to The National. The ministry called it the first known depiction of the lighthouse engraved on a signet ring, and The Art Newspaper’s account of the excavation and the announcement quotes the same claim.

The engraving, and who identifies it

Reports describe the object as a bronze signet ring engraved with the lighthouse, and they are careful about whose judgement that is. El-Leithy said the image resembles depictions of the landmark on coins dated to the second century AD, a comparison that supplies the ring’s rough date. The identification of the engraving as the Pharos therefore rests on resemblance to coin imagery, and the sources consulted do not say who first made it; the ring is described as the institute’s and ministry’s find, and no scholarly paper on it has been cited.

Hector Williams, an archaeologist and maritime historian at the University of British Columbia who has visited the site several times, told The Art Newspaper that the ring matches descriptions of the lighthouse and representations on mosaics and terracotta lamps. He added that its full importance cannot be judged until there is a detailed account of where it was found and whether it came from a datable context. The European Institute gave no firm date for the ring and no details about its owner.

The ring did not come out of an isolated spot. The Art Newspaper says the excavations have exposed architectural remains across several thousand square metres of the sunken royal quarter, along with pottery and glass objects dating from the fourth century BC to the fourth century AD. A span of roughly eight centuries of material in one drowned district is what makes the context question so pressing: a ring recovered from a mixed layer can be far younger or older than the building around it, which is why outside specialists are asking for the findspot record.

The Pharos itself, and the palace that held the ring

The lighthouse was built of white marble between 297 and 284 BC and stood nearly 400 feet tall, according to the magazine, before earthquakes destroyed it in AD 1303 and 1323. Its stones were later reused: the Mamluk sultan Qaitbay built a fortress on the site in the late fifteenth century. Archaeology’s earlier feature on the Seven Wonders and the Pharos traces what is known of the tower, and it is the reason a clear contemporary image of its shape is so prized.

Goddio said the find is especially significant because it came from the palace on Antirhodos, which he described as a centre of power. His statement says the Greek geographer Strabo, who visited Egypt between 29 and 25 BC, described that palace, and that it held administrative offices, possibly including functions tied to the lighthouse. That is Goddio’s reading of the setting, and the ring has not been shown to belong to any particular official.

A signet ring was a working object. Archaeology notes that it could have been used to seal letters or amphoras or to validate documents, which would make the lighthouse a kind of emblem for whoever pressed it into clay or wax. The magazine drew its account from a report in La Brujula Verde, and other outlets carried the ministry and institute statements the same week.

Work is continuing: this season’s excavations cover four sites in the Eastern Harbor: the temple of Isis, the palace and western mound on Antirhodos, obelisk remains, and the Timonium, a palace linked to Mark Antony. The team plans to move next to Abu Qir Bay, where it located the submerged city of Thonis-Heracleion in 2000. Until the findspot is published, the date stays open.

This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.

Save more, waste less: Subscribe to The Cool Down →

We may earn a commission if you sign up.