GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — In the past when fishermen entered the waters off Gaza at night, they relied on lights attached to their small vessels to guide them. Lighthouses never led their way. Such structures had never been part of their culture or navigational practices. Now, however, a lighthouse stands at the center of Gaza's port.
If compared to well-known lighthouses in the Arab world, it resembles neither Beirut’s 197-foot-tall modern lighthouse nor the 394-foot-tall historic lighthouse of Alexandria. In fact, Gaza's lighthouse is a 45-foot-tall artwork whose light shines some 2 miles into the Mediterranean Sea.