Did You Know…

 DIE OF ENVY NASA BECAUSE THE FIRST COMPUTER WORLD WAS GREEK!

ANTIKYTHERA. This was the name given to the artifact.

Digital reconstruction done by computer, from CT

By the early twentieth century researchers found in a shipwreck off the coast of the island of Antikythera, a complex gear box with bronze. This is a mechanism to make high astronomical calculations. The grandfather of our modern computers would be able to predict solar and lunar eclipses, accurately describe the movements of the constellations of the zodiac and determine the time when these events occur.

Location wreck

An instrument as precise calculations would only be built by the Islamic peoples of the eighth century a.C., yet the Islamic astronomical clock would not be as accurate as the clock Antikythera and probably would have been done in the city of Rhodes in ancient Greece.

Reconstruction made by the Englishman John Gleave

 

Antikythera Mechanism in the state where it is today

Did you know…

In ancient times, mariners who came to the region of Alexandria by the Mediterranean Sea found it very difficult to land in the coastal city of the city. There were rocks causing accidents with boats along the coast. This problem has decreased after the construction of one of the greatest productions of ancient engineering: the Lighthouse of Alexandria.
Completed in 280 b.C., the project of the greek architect and engineer Sostratus of Cnidus, on the orders of King Ptolemy II, was located on the island of Pharos – hence the origin of the word lighthouse – situated at the entrance of the port of Alexandria. On a square base stood a tower with a height between 117 and about 134 meters, built in three distinct ways: the lower part was rectangular, the octagonal middle while the latter was cylindrical. Within the latter, a flame that burned through mirrors, illuminated the great distance. It is believed that the light reached 50 kilometers, that’s why the great fame and importance of the lighthouse, which made him join the list of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.

Lighthouse of Alexandria

Reconstitution of the Lighthouse of Alexandria, whose light could reach 50 kilometers away and helped the sailors coming from the Mediterranean to come into the city.
Around the base were located in the local administration and places to save fuel – which was led by oxen up to the octagonal tower, then hoisted by employees up to the highest part, using a caster system. Also on this site were the dormitories and dining halls of the employees, who were hired by the government and worked in shifts.
This work, probably made with a type of light stone and lined with marble and limestone, began to crumble in the fourteenth century, when an earthquake and landslide engulfed much of Alexandria.
Some of the lighthouse of Alexandria’s archaeological remains were found and still exist. Some of its stones were reused to build the forth Qaitbey in 1480 that today is the place where was the last of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World to be built. 

PS: The Lighthouse of Alexandria is also the symbol of the Research Center of Antiquity (RCA).