A bronze signet ring engraved with an image of the Pharos lighthouse has been recovered from the sunken island of Antirhodos in Alexandria's harbour. Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities says it is the first known seal bearing an image of the Pharos. The ring suggests that a person or an office on Antirhodos signed and sealed documents with the lighthouse image. What exactly it was used for, and who wore it, is conjecture.
The European Institute for Underwater Archaeology announced the find on 7 October 2026. The excavation is a joint project with the Egyptian underwater archaeology department and is led by Franck Goddio. Tourism minister Sherif Fathy called the ring "the first known depiction of the lighthouse engraved on a signet ring". Hisham El-Leithy, secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, said no seal with an image of the lighthouse had been found before.
Pottery, glass vessels and other items from different centuries were recovered along with the ring. The pottery from the sites dates from the 4th century BC to the 4th century AD. The team is working at four sites in the Eastern Harbour, including a temple of Isis, palace remains, an obelisk and the Timonium, which is linked to Mark Antony.
In ancient times, a signet ring worked like a signature. Its engraved face was pressed into wax or soft clay to seal a letter, an amphora or a shipment. The imprint showed that the document or cargo had passed through the hands of a certain person or office. So a find showing the lighthouse, made in a former royal quarter, may be linked to harbour management and sea links, but this is conjecture.
Antirhodos was part of the Great Harbour and a private royal quarter of the Ptolemies. Strabo, who visited Alexandria between 29 and 25 BC, described a "royal palace and a small harbour" there. Mark Antony later built the Timonium retreat on the island. The lighthouse was raised in the early 3rd century BC and guided ships for more than a thousand years, until earthquakes brought it down.
The engraving resembles images of the lighthouse on Alexandrian coins of the 2nd century AD. On them the Pharos is shown with a statue on top and tritons at the corners of the first storey, the same design seen on the ring. For that reason, some reports date the ring to around the 2nd century. But the sources give no firm date. The institute gave no date and did not say who owned the ring, and the Egyptian ministry does not place it firmly in the 2nd century. The size and weight of the ring have not been published.
What is established is that the ring is bronze, carries an engraved image of the lighthouse, was found on Antirhodos, and that the image is similar to those on 2nd-century coins. The guesses go further. Goddio believes the find matters more because it comes from the "legendary palace on the island of Antirhodos, which was once a centre of power". In his view the palace housed administrative offices, including ones tied to the lighthouse. Whether the ring points to harbour officials or to an institutional office around the lighthouse, and whether the palace served the administration as early as the 2nd century AD, is, on what has been announced, a hypothesis.
The underwater excavation season continues, and the team is studying material from different periods of Alexandria's history.