The oldest known lighthouse in history was the Lighthouse of Alexandria, located on the island of Pharos in Egypt.

The first lighthouse in the United States was built in Boston, Maine in 1716.

The oldest known lighthouse that still exists stands as a bell tower in Dover, England.  

La Coruna, Spain has the oldest working lighthouse in the world, called the Tower of Hercules. 

The oldest operating lighthouse in the United States is located in Sandy Hook, NJ.

About 1,500 lighthouses were constructed in the United States, but there was never more then 850 operating at one time.

The tallest Lighthouse in the United States is Cape Hatteras Lighthouse in North Carolina, and stands at 200 feet.

The world’s tallest lighthouse is the Yokohama Marine Tower in Japan; it stands at 348 feet.

The home of the first known lighthouse, Pharos, can be found in today’s modern day languages, as the root of the word for “lighthouse”, for example:

• In Portuguese the word for lighthouse is farol.
  
• In French the word for lighthouse is phare.
  
• In Italian and Spanish the word for lighthouse is faro.
  
• In Albanian, Catalan and Romanian the word for lighthouse is far. 
  

Lighthouses have become a symbol for dependability under duress, hope, or guidance.

Lighthouses were built to guide hunters of food from the sea back to the land, replacing ancient methods of bonfires.

A description of a lighthouse at the mouth of the Persian Gulf can be found in Jia Din’s early map of sea trade routes in 785 to 805.

Lighthouses became essential for trading ships to do business as they enabled cargo ships to enter the harbor safely, thereby protecting their cargo.