Lighthouses of the World

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A lighthouse is a tower, building, or another type of structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses and to serve as a navigational aid for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways.

According to The Lighthouse Directory data, about 18,700 lighthouses worldwide.

The interactive map “Lights at Sea” below uses OpenStreetMap data to display the locations of lighthouses around the globe. The map shows the locations of particular lighthouses and the unique flash patterns and light colors that lighthouses use so that sailors can determine them and tell them apart from different lighthouses. The size of the lighthouse symbols is scaled to display the distance that each light is seeable. The range of light radiated by a lighthouse is measured by how many nautical miles away it can be observed.

The world’s most miniature lighthouse is the North Queensferry Light Tower, near the Forth Bridge in Scotland. A mere 5 meters or 16 feet tall, it was constructed in 1817 by Robert Stevenson, a well-known builder of lighthouses, as was his son Thomas was the father of the renowned novelist Robert Louis Stevenson. In contrast, Jeddah Light in Saudi Arabia is the world’s tallest lighthouse, reaching 133 meters or 436 feet.

The 10 tallest lighthouses in the world

1. Jeddah Light in Jeddah (Saudi Arabia) – 436 feet (133 m)
2. Perry Memorial Monument in Put-in-Bay, Ohio (United States) – 352 feet (107 m)
3. Yokohama Marine Tower in Yokohama (Japan) – 332 feet (101 m)
4. Palacio Barolo in Buenos Aires (Argentina)- 328 feet (100 m)
5. Statue of Liberty in New York City (United States) – 305 feet (93 m)
7. Île Vierge lighthouse in Finistère (France) – 82.5 meters (271 ft)
8. Lighthouse of Genoa (Italy) – 76 meters (253 ft)
9. Phare de Gatteville in Gatteville-le-Phare (France) – 75 meters (247 ft)
10. Lesnoy Mole Rear Range Light in Saint-Petersburg (Russia) – 73 meters (239 ft)

Related post:
– Lighthouses of Europe