Now, I can understand losing your glasses, your car keys, or your purse. But, how can you “lose” something as big as a pyramid or a lighthouse? Well, let me tell you these stories, which broke this week in the news.
First, the story of the missing lighthouse. Historians in Cape Cod thought that a 30-foot lighthouse that had once overlooked Wellfleet Harbor had been taken down and destroyed in 1925. However, this week, the lighthouse was found – in California! The lighthouse was “found’ last year by lighthouse researcher, but the discovery of it was just published this month in an edition of Lighthouse Digest. I had no idea there were lighthouse researchers much less a Lighthouse Digest!
Wellfleet historian Helen Purcell was the one that discovered that the lighthouse had been moved to Point Montara, which is 25 miles south of San Francisco. She came upon this discovery when she found correspondence that proved the lighthouse had been moved by the Coast Guard to first Yerba Buena then Point Montara, yet nothing was found to explain how it was moved. The chairman of the Cape Cod Chapter of the American Lighthouse Foundation Jim Walker believes that because the lighthouse was metal, it could have been disassembled and moved by railroad to California.
If finding a missing 30 foot lighthouse isn’t exciting enough for you, how about a missing pyramid? Egyptian archaeologists have found a pyramid (well, only the base remains) that served as the burial place of King Menkauhor who ruled Egypt briefly over 4,000 years ago. The pyramid was first discovered by German archaeologist Karl Richard Lepsius in 1842. He referred to at as the “headless pyramid” because it was missing the top. The pyramid went missing when desert sands covered it. Archaeologist Zahi Hawass’ team was able to find the base after removing 25 feet of sand over the past year and a half.
Hawass’ team also discovered a ceremonial procession road, which dates back to the Ptolemaic period. This road runs alongside the pyramid base they uncovered.