Tea at Trianon: The Lighthouse of Alexandria

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Wednesday, December 31, 2025

The Lighthouse of Alexandria

From The Greek Reporter:

The Lighthouse of Alexandria, the last standing of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, was an engineering marvel that served to guide ships to the port city.

It was completed in the 3rd century BC during the reign of Ptolemy II Philadelphus, the son of Ptolemy I, the Macedonian Greek general of Alexander the Great, on the island of Pharos off the coast of the city of Alexandria in Egypt.

The Lighthouse of Alexandria was a beacon, safely guiding seamen sailing the Mediterranean to Egypt for fifteen centuries.
It was one of the greatest architectural feats of antiquity, serving as a symbol of power of the Ptolemaic Dynasty, the successors of Alexander the Great, who was the founder of the city of Alexandria.

An important landmark of the Hellenistic period, the Lighthouse of Alexandria had travelers from all over the world who were encouraged to visit the port city to admire the tower. (Read more.)