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Oldest Lighthouse of Asia

Asia’s oldest lighthouse

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This is the Olakaneeshvara temple in Mahabalipuram, Tamil Nadu. It was built by Pallava king Mahendravarman in 630 CE. Apart from being a Shiva temple, it also served another purpose. The temple functioned as a lighthouse to emit light and serve as a navigational aid for ships in the sea. They used oil to kindle up a huge pot which was placed on the square platform at the top of the cave temple. It was kept kindled all night. The burning pot emitted a lot of light in the nighttime skies. As such, this is the oldest lighthouse in all of Asia.

The British constructed a lighthouse just adjacent to the ancient lighthouse in 1887. For a while, they had also used the ancient lighthouse on the temple to guide their ships. The second oldest lighthouse of Asia was only built by the Portuguese in 1864.

Sources:

  1. https://trueindologytwitter.wordpress.com/2020/03/31/asias-oldest-lighthouse/
  2. “The archaeology of seafaring in ancient South Asia” by Himanshu Prabha Ray