Bronze Ring Holds the Lighthouse of Alexandria in the Sunken City

Ancient Egypt's greatest monument to seafaring has resurfaced in the smallest way possible. A bronze signet ring engraved with the Lighthouse of Alexandria was lifted from the sunken royal quarter of Alexandria's Eastern Harbour, Egyptian officials announced on October 7, 2026. Authorities describe it as the first known depiction of the Pharos on a seal ring, a wonder that once towered over the harbor and now fits on a finger.

The announcement came from Hisham El-Leithy, the secretary-general of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, during a visit by Tourism and Antiquities Minister Sherif Fathy to the underwater excavations, according to La Brújula Verde. Divers had found the ring a few days earlier on Antirhodos, the submerged royal island that once formed part of the great harbor known as the Portus Magnus. El-Leithy said the ring's design recalls depictions of the Lighthouse of Alexandria already known from coins minted in the second century AD. The ministry has not dated the ring, and its size, any inscription, and its owner remain unknown.

A signet ring worked as a personal signature. Its face was cut so that, pressed into wax or soft clay, it left a raised mark used to close letters, seal amphorae of wine and olive oil, and validate documents. That function is why the object matters as much as the monument it shows: for centuries the Lighthouse of Alexandria was the emblem of the city, and here that emblem is stamped onto a personal seal. El-Leithy has suggested the palace on Antirhodos may have remained in administrative use long after the Ptolemies fell, perhaps in connection with running the lighthouse. He words it as a hypothesis, and no document or inscription identifying a lighthouse office has yet surfaced.

Where the Lighthouse of Alexandria was found

Antirhodos now lies a few meters below the Mediterranean off the modern seafront, but in antiquity it was the Ptolemies' private royal quarter. The Greek geographer Strabo, who visited Egypt in the late first century BC, described "an island lying off the artificial harbor, which has a royal palace and a small port," in a passage translated by La Brújula Verde. The island's name means "rival of Rhodes," a nod to another of the ancient wonders, the Colossus.

Franck Goddio's European Institute for Underwater Archaeology has worked these waters since the early 1990s alongside Egypt's General Administration of Underwater Antiquities, beginning by mapping some 400 hectares of seabed before divers went down. This season covers four areas of the Eastern Harbour: the Temple of Isis, the Antirhodos palace and its western hill, the remains of an obelisk, and the Timonium, which the ministry's statement calls "Antony's palace." Alongside the ring, the team turned up pottery spanning from the fourth century BC, when Alexander the Great founded the city, to the fourth century AD, including tableware, amphorae, jars, flasks, and oil lamps, as reported by Ancient Origins.

A timeline of the Lighthouse of Alexandria

The Lighthouse of Alexandria rose around 280 BC, early in the reign of Ptolemy II, and ranked among the tallest structures of the ancient world. Ancient sources put its height at roughly 120 meters, more than twice the 55 meters of the Tower of Hercules in Spain, the only Roman lighthouse still in service. Coins from Roman-era Alexandria preserve its look: issues from the reigns of Domitian and Antoninus Pius show a statue on the summit and Triton figures at the corners of the first level. Earthquakes in 1303 and 1323 brought the tower down, and the Qaitbay Fort rose on the spot in 1477. Divers found the ruins beneath the harbor in 1994. In 2025, a separate team working at the other end of the harbor lifted 22 large blocks from the seabed to scan and rebuild the structure digitally, as reported by Archaeology Magazine. The ring, announced in October 2026, is the latest chapter: the Lighthouse of Alexandria's image, compressed from stone to bronze.

What the find can, and cannot, prove

Whether the ring truly is the first of its kind depends on how a signet ring is defined. The researcher Andrew Michael Chugg has noted a Roman blue-glass seal in Vienna's Kunsthistorisches Museum and a Byzantine carved gemstone in the British Museum, both carrying images of the Lighthouse of Alexandria, but neither is described as a ring, according to La Brújula Verde. Scholars will need to see the object published before judging how it compares. Its exact date, size, and owner are still unknown, and El-Leithy's suggestion that it belonged to someone connected with running the lighthouse remains unproven.

Why the Lighthouse of Alexandria on a ring matters

The contrast with the 2025 recovery sharpens the story. Last year brought massive stone blocks up from the seabed; this year, a small bronze seal. The blocks will reconstruct the monument's body. The ring points at the people around it: harbor officials, merchants, and palace staff who carried the Lighthouse of Alexandria as their personal mark. When the Eastern Harbour season ends, Goddio's mission moves to Abu Qir Bay, about 30 kilometers east of the city, where the sunken cities of Canopus and Thonis-Heracleion wait. The smallest artifact of the season may turn out to be its most human. Explore more finds in The Old World, or read how other underwater archaeologists work a sunken site in Mesolithic Lake Timbers Found Beneath a German Lake.