Significance
Pharos became the etymological origin of the word 'lighthouse' in Greek (φάρος), many Romance languages, such as French (phare), Italian and Spanish (faro), Romanian (far) and Portuguese (farol) and even some Slavic languages like Bulgarian (far).
In 2008 it was suggested that the Pharos was the vertical yardstick used in the first precise measurement of the size of the earth.
Read more about this topic: Lighthouse Of Alexandria
Famous quotes containing the word significance:
“Of what significance the light of day, if it is not the reflection of an inward dawn?—to what purpose is the veil of night withdrawn, if the morning reveals nothing to the soul? It is merely garish and glaring.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The hypothesis I wish to advance is that ... the language of morality is in ... grave disorder.... What we possess, if this is true, are the fragments of a conceptual scheme, parts of which now lack those contexts from which their significance derived. We possess indeed simulacra of morality, we continue to use many of the key expressions. But we have—very largely if not entirely—lost our comprehension, both theoretical and practical, of morality.”
—Alasdair Chalmers MacIntyre (b. 1929)
“History is the interpretation of the significance that the past has for us.”
—Johan Huizinga (1872–1945)