Massive stones that were once part of one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World have been recovered from the harbor at the Egyptian city of Alexandria, as part of an effort to assemble a digital reconstruction of what may have been the world’s first skyscraper: the colossal Lighthouse of Alexandria

Rivaled only by the Great Pyramid of Giza in height when it was completed in 246 BCE, the Lighthouse of Alexandria towered at least 103 meters (338 feet)—and by some accounts 118 meters (387 feet)—above the harbor on Pharos, an island on the opposite side of the harbor to the famed city of Alexandria.

According to contemporary accounts, the lighthouse was a tiered structure with a large square-based building as its base, from which rose an octagonal tower that was in turn topped by a circular section; this housed a large mirror that was used to reflect sunlight during the day, and at night a bonfire provided the light used to guide ships to port.

The lighthouse guarded its harbor for more than a millennium before it was damaged by earthquakes that occurred in 796 and 951 AD; five years later it suffered a structural collapse during another earthquake, with the top 20 meters (65.6 feet) toppling in 956; the structure was finally abandoned after a severe earthquake in 1303 reduced the building to rubble. The last of the lighthouse’s ruins disappeared in 1480 when the foundation and its remaining blocks were appropriated for the construction of the Citadel of Qaitbay.

The underwater remains of the lighthouse remained lost until 1968 when a UNESCO-sponsored marine archaeologist team confirmed that ruins located in previous decades did indeed belong to the long-lost structure, but due to a combination of limited resources and the area becoming a military zone, the ruins remained unexplored until 1994.

In July 2025, 22 massive stone blocks that were part of the lighthouse’s towering entrance, threshold stones, and foundation paving blocks were raised from the harbor as part of an effort to map the individual pieces for a digital reconstruction of the colossal structure, with the resurfaced stones adding to a database of more than 100 previously-scanned components.

“These include monumental door lintels and jambs weighing 70 to 80 tons, the threshold, large base slabs, and parts of a previously unknown monument: a pylon with an Egyptian-style door crafted from the Hellenistic period,” according to a statement released by La Fondation Dassault Systèmes, the software firm that is conducting the “PHAROS” digital reconstruction project.

“Like pieces of a giant archaeological puzzle, each block will be analyzed and repositioned virtually,” the statement continued. “Using scientific simulations and virtual worlds, the team of engineers will test hypotheses about the lighthouse’s construction and collapse, creating a digital twin of this lost wonder. The virtual model will revive the lighthouse’s original grandeur, allowing visitors to explore it as if they were on site.”