Long after its light was extinguished memories of it glowed in the minds of men. Thus EM Forster described the lighthouse of Alexandria, one of the Seven Wonders of the World. In the 15C Sultan Ashraf Qaitbay decided to build an imposing fortress where it had stood until a century earlier. Recently restored, the fort is a fine example of Mamluk military architecture. Archaeologists, who have been carrying out marine excavations off the shore from the fort for the last 20 years, have recovered numerous vestiges of the lighthouse.