Tamoro Sue Kuans, age 9, of Shreveport, Louisiana, for her question:

What is a Pharos?

If you like fancy words, you can say pharos instead of lighthouse. The first pharos was rated as one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Its glistening white marble, tower stood perhaps 400 feet high. The eye catching building was ordered by Alexander the Great, conqueror of the known world, when he designed the great Egyptian port of Alexandria. The city stands by the muddy delta of the Nile and near its shores the silty sand had built a flat, sprawling island. Alexander ordered a causeway from this Island of Pharos to the mainland.

But the harbor waters were full of hidden and half hidden mud banks and sandy shoats,. Many ships foundered and were wrecked around the island of Pharos. So the Egyptians built a tall, white tower on the island. Ships could see it from afar and at night it shed a warning beam of light far out to sea. This guiding light was, of course, a lighthouse. But, grateful sailors and admiring tourists named it for the island. It was called Pharos of Alexandria.

This wondrous building has long since fallen. A modern lighthouse has radio, radar, and maybe a stand by rescue squad. But like the Pharos of Alexandria, its aim is to warp sailors of tricky waters ahead and when necessary to help in their rescue. This is why tae may call any kind of a lighthouse a pharos.