Cigarette Card

Wills’s Cigarettes “Wonders of the Past” Cigarette Card #6 “The Pharos of Alexandria”

Produced in 1926 by W. D. & H. O. Wills.

Issued by The Imperial Tobacco Company (of Great Britain & Ireland) Ltd.

Text on reverse of card reads:

“One of the Seven Wonders, the Pharos of Alexandria was built by the architect Sostratus of Cnidus for the Greco Egyptian king Ptolemy Philadelphus (285-247 B. C.), and is considered the “father of lighthouses.” Standing on an island outside. Alexandria harbour, it is estimated to have been between 400 and 600 feet high, and its light is said to have been visible for 27 miles out at sea. It was demolished by the cunning of an emissary from Constantinople in the 9th century A.D., when Alexandria was in the hands of the Arabs; and an earthquake completed its destruction in the 14th century.”