Lighthouses are important buildings used by sailors to help them find their way and warn them of dangers. For example, rocks hidden under the surface of the sea could sink their ships. They are often built on cliffs, at the entrance to harbours and sometimes on raised stands in the water. Different lighthouses use different flashes and colours of light so that sailors can tell them apart.

Before the first lighthouses were built, sailors out at sea were guided by fires built on hilltops. People realised that if the fires could be built higher up, the light would be seen further away, so they then built fires on platforms and raised them higher and higher.

One of the first lighthouses was the Lighthouse of Alexandria on the island of Pharos built around 280 BC. It was one of the Wonders of the Ancient World before it was destroyed by an earthquake in the fourteenth century.

Lighthouses originally used oil lamps or candles, and the job of a lighthouse keeper was to make sure that all the equipment was working to keep the light shining through the night. Nowadays, lighthouses use electricity and most run without lighthouse keepers. Computer technology is used to light the lamp at dusk and put it out in the morning.

The first lighthouse in the UK was built in Devon in the 1690s to warn sailors off the dangerous Eddystone rocks. There are now over a hundred lighthouses in the UK, though not all of them are still in use.

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