I’ve long been a fan of having a theme when traveling. Maybe you travel to sample a country’s cuisine, maybe to explore cafes you’ve heard about, the best gelato, World Heritage sites, opera houses or bookstores. The possibilities are endless, right? But when a friend mentioned his passion for lighthouses I thought, now that’s a travel theme I hadn’t considered. When I thought back to some of the lighthouses I’d visited by chance, I realized that my friend was on to something. I did find them fascinating for their history, architecture, and locations.
Naturally I asked my friend how he found out about lighthouses to visit. He pointed me to this website. Amazing resource for sure.
Lighthouse Website Tells ALL
The site provides information about 24,600 of the world’s lighthouses. Yes, 24,000 plus! Who knew there were so many lighthouses?
The site is also great for the latest in lighthouse news and its lighthouse directory is huge and kept up to date. The directory is easy to navigate because it’s broken up into areas of the world.
The site was founded in 1999 (during the relocation of North Carolina’s Cape Hatteras lighthouse). It serves as a tool for research and study concerning lighthouses and efforts to preserve those lighthouses. The Directory provides a brief compilation of basic data for each lighthouse with links to other reliable information available online. The site also posts many photos of lighthouses from around the world.
Pro Tip: Do you Pruvo all your hotels stays? If not, do what I do and let Pruvo monitor your reservations for price drops. It’s free and it’s the easiest way to save money on all your hotel rooms.
Definitions: What is a lighthouse?
Before you head off to check out this great site, let me share some basics.
A lighthouse is an aid to navigation or navaid. It’s a structure placed on or near navigable water to provide visual guidance to mariners. A beacon is an aid to navigation that is fixed in place (that is, not floating). A lighted beacon or lightbeacon is a beacon displaying a light, while an unlit beacon is called a daybeacon. Often, a lighted beacon is simply called a light.
Everyone agrees that a lighthouse is a lightbeacon that is, in some sense, a substantial building. Many lighthouses are enclosed buildings with walls of stone, brick, wood, concrete, metal, or modern composite materials. Many others are open skeletal (framework) towers of cast iron, steel, or wood. The light at the top of some lighthouses is housed in an enclosed lantern, but many lighthouses have the light exposed with no lantern. Historically lighthouses were powered with a variety of fuels, but today nearly all are solar powered.
A light station is a collection of buildings including a lighthouse, staff quarters, and supporting structures such as a fog signal building housing a foghorn or fogbell, a boathouse, an oil house to store fuel for the light, and so on. A century ago all lighthouses required lightkeepers to maintain and operate the light, fog signal, and other equipment.
Today practically all aids to navigation operate automatically, but some light stations have resident caretakers, still called keepers, to maintain the property and guard against vandalism.
Whether or not you’ve ever been to a lighthouse or visit them all the time when you travel, keep this website in mind. It’s a very useful resource. And for sure I’ll now look at this directory when I travel. Could very well lead to some fun afternoon site-seeing.
If you visit lighthouses let us know your favorite ones in the comments below!
Related Articles:
- My Favorite Travel Resources and Products
- Do you find it difficult to book award flights with your miles and points? I do! That’s why I turn to Point.me. They get me great deals and save me money and time.
- I Always Get the Lowest Prices on Hotel Rooms: Here’s How!
- 9 Awesome Travel Accessories To Pack for Your Next Trip
- Don’t miss out on the BEST current travel credit card offers!
The responses below are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.
