Alexandria - Research Paper Example

To add to this, they had no navigation tools and only used stars and eyesight for knowing directions. The light house thus formed a major point of showing directions to travellers in the region during both the day and the night (Stokes 67). Sostracus was a Greek architect from Asia in a minor city of Cnidus (Hamilton 21). During the construction, he wanted to put the king’s name alongside his name on the great art of the light house but his request was not granted by the pharaoh at the time, Ptolemy.

Sostracus then decided to play a trick on the king by first carving his own carving bearing his name a task which he did with a lot of artistic design. He then made the kings carving which was made from mere plaster (Hamilton 29). With time the plaster washed away and left only his own carving which reads ‘Sostratos of Cnidus, son of Dexiphanes, to the savior gods, for sailors’. This is a show of how creative Sostracus was with his artistic designs. He had skills to enable him do anything.

This essay thus tries to analyze and discuss all the artistic styles and symbolism he used as an artist. It gives why he chose to use the specific artistic styles and their symbolism in the work (Stokes 77). The light house was built on a very large space. . This is evident from the fact that with time the name lighthouse started to represent the name pharos. Travellers now referred to pharaoh as the light house. The large base area of the light house showed the stability of the king’s council and the large army he had for security purposes.

It also shows the stability of the trade he was conducting at the city. The light house was built to enable guide traders to the Alexandria city for trade purposes. Being huge was also a representation of the massive trade and money at the place. This thus attracted a lot of people at the place. The lighthouse was also very tall (Doak 85). Being tall was a representation of how far their power can go. Their power included monetary value and the fierce army they had (Stokes 55). Considering the material used in the building of the light house; white marble.

It is a representation of the peaceful nature of the country. Being white shows that the trade transacted at the place was blameless and without deceit and lies (Bowman 21). It was also a representation of the good leadership of Egypt by the pharos. Marble is also seen to be very hard. This is seen to be a representation of the powerful and strong governance of Egypt. It shows that the security and protection state of the city and Egypt in general is up to date and no invasion can manage to bring it down.

The smooth nature of marble is a representation of the peaceful nature of Egypt and Alexandria as a trading venue. It shows that the inhabitants of Egypt and the leaders do not have ill plans to the visitors and the traders to the place (Bowman 29). The third piece of the light house was mainly build using limestone.