香港燈塔百年意象

Introduction

by Sarah Stevenson

Lighthouses have been with us for over two thousand years, with the oldest on record dating back to 280 BC. Mariners rely on Lighthouses to guide them on the water with light by night and distinctive structural shape by day. Lighthouses are often built on cliffs and capes at the coastline. Each lighthouse is unique and is manned by a keeper known as The Lighthouse Keeper. Lighthouses are often the first visible structure of a coast seen at sea and they play an important role in shaping a culture and its heritage.

The Pharos of Alexandria, more commonly known as the Lighthouse of Alexandria was built by the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Ancient Greece sometime between 280 – 247 BCE. the Lighthouse of Alexandria took over 12 years to complete and served as the prototype for all future lighthouses. The Pharos of Alexandria became one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World and for many centuries was one of the tallest man-made structures in the world. 
Further Reading


Another famous lighthouse is The Bell Rock Lighthouse located just off the coast of Angus, Scotland. This lighthouse is the world’s oldest lighthouse that has survived the tides of the sea and is one of the Seven Wonders of the Industrial World. The Bell Rock Lighthouse was built between 1807 and 1810 by a civil engineer named Robert Stevenson who hired 60 men in 1807 to start the construction of the lighthouse. To this day, The Bell Rock Lighthouse stands proud and tall, a monument to the labor, dedication, love and passion built into it stone by stone. Further Reading

In 1869, the opening of the Suez Canal offered Hong Kong the opportunity to transform itself from a regional entrepot for South China to a global shipping hub. This resulted in the need for Hong Kong to erect lighthouses on its borders. According to the heritage conservation website, Hong Kong has five lighthouses declared monuments in Hong Kong with the oldest one built in 1875 at Cape D'Aguilar. Two lighthouses were built on Green Island and another two, one on Waglan Island, and the other on Tang Lung Chau. In 1901, After the colonial government took over Waglan Island as part of the New Territories lease, it became common practice for the lighthouse to be manned by Eurasians, typically the children of British military fathers and local Chinese mothers, according to the late Dan Waters, former president of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch. This continued throughout the twentieth century, until the process of localisation resulted in ethnic Chinese locals becoming lighthouse staff.

Lighthouse Heritages in Hong Kong

(Cape D'Aguilar Lighthouse, Waglan Lighthouse, Old Green Island Lighthouse, and New Green Island Lighthouse)

 香港燈塔古蹟位置圖 (Refer: Map of The Convention for the Extension of Hong Kong Territory in 1898)

1. The Oldest Lighthouse Drawing Published in Hong Kong 

    (Illuminating Lighthouse Illustration海中照船燈塔畫解
    (Source: 香港舊報紙, 暇邇貫珍, 1856年5月) 海中照船燈塔文獻來源 

2. Cape D'Aguilar Lighthouse 鶴咀燈塔

2.1  1873 2D 建築圖（Source: UK Archive)
2.2  1875 3D 重建模型 by Anthony Ka Ho Leung

3. Green Island Lighthouses 舊青洲燈㙮及新青洲燈㙮

3.1 舊、新青洲燈塔照片 (Source: HK Memories)
3.2 2020 3D 重建模型 by Anthony Ka Ho Leung