Friday, January 15, 2010

Knowledge

Knowledge is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as (i) expertise, and skills acquired by a person through experience or education; the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject, (ii) what is known in a particular field or in total; facts and information or (iii) awareness or familiarity gained by experience of a fact or situation. Philosophical debates in general start with Plato's formulation of knowledge as "justified true belief". There is however no single agreed definition of knowledge presently, nor any prospect of one, and there remain numerous competing theories.

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Web hosting

A web hosting service is a type of Internet hosting service that allows individuals and organizations to make their own website accessible via the World Wide Web. Web hosts are companies that provide space on a server they own or lease for use by their clients as well as providing Internet connectivity, typically in a data center. Web hosts can also provide data center space and connectivity to the Internet for servers they do not own to be located in their data center, called colocation

Service scope

The scope of hosting services varies widely. The most basic is web page and small-scale file hosting, where files can be uploaded via File Transfer Protocol (FTP) or a Web interface

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Pamela Anderson


Pamela Denise Anderson (born July 1, 1967) is a Canadian/American actress, sex symbol, glamour model, producer, author, activist, and former Showgirl.

Anderson is best known for her roles on the television series Home Improvement, Baywatch, and V.I.P. She was chosen as a Playmate of the Month for Playboy magazine in February 1990. For a time, she was known as Pamela Anderson Lee (or Pamela Lee) after marrying Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee. She holds both American and Canadian citizenship.

Early life

Anderson was born in Ladysmith, British Columbia, the daughter of Carol, a waitress, and Barry Anderson, a furnace repairman. Her great-grandfather, Juho Hyytiäinen, was Finnish, a native of Saarijärvi, and left Finland in 1908, changing his name to Anderson when he arrived as an immigrant. Pamela Anderson is Russian on her mother's side.

The newborn Anderson won fame as Canada's "Centennial Baby", because she was thought to have been the first baby born on Canada's Centennial Day (she was born at 4:08 in the morning). However, the Campbell River Upper Islander of July 5, 1967 reported a baby born two hours earlier on the same Canada Day.

Career

After graduating from Highland Secondary School in 1985, Anderson moved to Vancouver and worked as a fitness instructor. During the summer of 1989, Anderson went with her friends to a BC Lions game at BC Place; during the game she was shown on the stadium screen wearing a Labatt's t-shirt, causing the crowd to cheer for the 21-year-old Anderson. She was taken down to the field to receive an ovation from the crowd. Labatt's immediately offered Anderson a modeling contract and she accepted. In late 1989, Anderson decided to model for Playboy magazine. She first appeared as their October 1989 cover girl. At this stage in her modeling career, she had decided to live in Los Angeles to further pursue her career ambitions. She became a centerfold for Playboy when the magazine chose her to be their Playmate of the Month for their February 1990 issue. Anderson has since appeared in Playboy several times in the 1990s and the following decade

Angelina Jolie

Pamela AndersonAngelina Jolie (born Angelina Jolie Voight; June 4, 1975) is an American actress. She has received three Golden Globe Awards, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, and an Academy Award. Jolie has promoted humanitarian causes throughout the world, and is noted for her work with refugees through as a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). She has been cited as one of the world's most beautiful women and her off-screen life is widely reported.

Though she made her screen debut as a child alongside her father Jon Voight in the 1982 film Lookin' to Get Out, Jolie's acting career began in earnest a decade later with the low-budget production Cyborg 2 (1993). Her first leading role in a major film was in Hackers (1995). She starred in the critically acclaimed biographical films George Wallace (1997) and Gia (1998), and won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in the drama Girl, Interrupted (1999). Jolie achieved wider fame after her portrayal of video game heroine Lara Croft in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001), and since then has established herself as one of the best-known and highest-paid actresses in Hollywood.She has had her biggest commercial successes with the action-comedy Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005) and the animated film Kung Fu Panda (2008).

Divorced from actors Jonny Lee Miller and Billy Bob Thornton, Jolie currently lives with actor Brad Pitt, in a relationship that has attracted worldwide media attention. Jolie and Pitt have three adopted children, Maddox, Pax, and Zahara, as well as three biological children, Shiloh, Knox, and Vivienne

Early life and family

Born in Los Angeles, California, Jolie is the daughter of actors Jon Voight and Marcheline Bertrand. She is the niece of Chip Taylor, sister of James Haven and the god-daughter of Jacqueline Bisset and Maximilian Schell. On her father's side, Jolie is of Czechoslovakian and German descent, and on her mother's side she is French Canadian and is said to be part Iroquois. However, Voight has claimed Bertrand was "not seriously Iroquois", and they merely said it to enhance his ex-wife's exotic background.

After her parents' separation in 1976, Jolie and her brother were raised by their mother, who abandoned her acting ambitions and moved with them to Palisades

Jessica Alba


Jessica Marie Alba (born April 28, 1981) is an American television and film actress. She began her television and movie appearances at age 13 in Camp Nowhere and The Secret World of Alex Mack (1994). Alba rose to prominence as the lead actress in the television series Dark Angel (2000–2002).[ Alba later appeared in various films including Honey (2003), Sin City (2005), Fantastic Four (2005), Into the Blue (2005), Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer and Good Luck Chuck both in 2007.

Alba is considered a sex symbol and often generates media attention for her looks. She appears frequently on the "Hot 100" section of Maxim and was voted number one on AskMen.com's list of "99 Most Desirable Women" in 2006, as well as "Sexiest Woman in the World" by FHM in 2007. The use of her image on the cover of the March 2006 Playboy sparked a lawsuit by her, which was later dropped.[9] She has also won various awards for her acting, including the Choice Actress Teen Choice Award and Saturn Award for Best Actress (TV), and a Golden Globe nomination for her lead role in the television series Dark Ange


Early life

Alba was born in Pomona, California to Catherine Alba (née Jensen) and Mark Alba. Her mother is of Danish and French Canadian descent and her father is Mexican American, though both of his parents were born in California (on the December 1, 2009 episode of Lopez Tonight, George Lopez announced that a DNA test showed Alba to be 87% European and 13% Indigenous American). She has a younger brother, Joshua. Her father's Air Force career took the family to Biloxi, Mississippi, and Del Rio, Texas before settling back in California when she was nine years old. Alba described her family as being a "very conservative family—a traditional, Catholic, Latin American family" and herself as very liberal; she says she had described herself as a "feminist" as early as age five.

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Love



Love




Love is any of a number of emotions related to a sense of strong affection and attachment. The word love can refer to a variety of different feelings, states, and attitudes, ranging from generic pleasure ("I loved that meal") to intense interpersonal attraction ("I love my husband"). This diversity of uses and meanings, combined with the complexity of the feelings involved, makes love unusually difficult to consistently define, even compared to other emotional states.

As an abstract concept, love usually refers to a deep, ineffable feeling of tenderly caring for another person. Even this limited conception of love, however, encompasses a wealth of different feelings, from the passionate desire and intimacy of romantic love to the nonsexual emotional closeness of familial and platonic love to the profound oneness or devotion of religious love. Love in its various forms acts as a major facilitator of interpersonal relationships and, owing to its central psychological importance, is one of the most common themes in the creative arts.

Friday, January 8, 2010

Mallika Sherawat


Mallika Sherawat ( born as Reema Lamba in Karnal, Haryana, India) is an Indian actress and model. Known for her public openness, she is frequently featured in the Indian media as a sex symbol.

Early life

Mallika Sherawat's birth name is Reema Lamba; she says that she adopted the screen name of "Mallika", meaning "empress" to avoid confusion with other actresses named Reema. "Sherawat" is her mother's maiden name. She has stated that she uses her mother's maiden name because of all the support her mother has provided for her. She went to school at Delhi Public School, Mathura Road. She has obtained a degree in Indian philosophy from Miranda House, Delhi University.

She started her career as a part time air-hostess and was married to Jet Airways pilot Captain Karan Singh Gill . She had to divorce him to pursue her Bollywood dreams.


Career

Mallika's onscreen debut was in Lak Tunoo, a music video by Surjit Bindrakhia. She attracted wide notice with her appearance in the 2003 movie Khwahish. In 2004, she starred in Murder, a film inspired by Hollywood's Unfaithful. She received a nomination for Best Actress at the Zee Cine Awards ceremony for her performance in Murder. The film went on to become one of the biggest hits of the year
Since then, Sherawat has been known for her courage to express her opinions in public, as well as because of the reaction to some of her statements.


She also made news when she won a small role in a Jackie Chan movie, The Myth; she made a widely publicized appearance at the Cannes Film Festival to promote The Myth.

However, her performance in the 2006 film Pyaar Ke Side Effects co-starring Rahul Bose won her praise from around the industry, and the film also garnered decent collections at the box office becoming a moderate success.
She played a small role in Dasavathaaram after her item number in a Tamil film.

Her first 2007 release was Himesh Reshammiya's Aap Ka Suroor - The Real Love Story, where she played a "vampish role".Mallika herself has protested, saying that it is a negative role but not a vamp role. With Aap Ka Suroor she has become the most expensive "Item Girl", as she charged Rs. 1.5 crore for her Item number in the movie. Aap Ka Suroor did well at the box office. Her last release of 2007 was Welcome which also did well at the box office receiving blockbuster status.

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Kareena Kapoor

Kareena Kapoor  born on 21 September 1980), often informally referred to as Bebo, is an Indian film actress who appears in Bollywood films. Born into a film family where both her parents, Randhir Kapoor and Babita, and her elder sister Karisma were actors, Kapoor faced the media spotlight from a very young age. However, she did not make her acting debut until the 2000 film Refugee, which earned her the Filmfare Best Female Debut Award. Her melodrama Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham became India's highest grossing film in the overseas market in 2001 and is her biggest commercial success to date.

After receiving negative reviews for a series of repetitive roles between 2002 and 2003, Kapoor accepted more demanding parts in order to avoid being typecast. Consequently, from 2004 to 2006 she was recognized by critics for displaying greater versatility. Her portrayal of a sex worker in Chameli (2004) proved to be the turning point in her career and garnered her the Filmfare Special Performance Award. She later received two Critics Awards for Best Actress at the Filmfare ceremony for her performances in the critically acclaimed Dev (2004) and Omkara (2006).

In 2007, Kapoor earned a Filmfare Best Actress Award for her performance in the Imtiaz Ali directed romantic comedy film, Jab We Met. Although the box office earnings of her films have varied considerably, Kapoor has established herself as one of the leading contemporary actresses in the Hindi film industry.Kapoor's off-screen life is subject to wide media coverage in India with frequent press coverage of her and boyfriend, actor Saif Ali Khan and speculation of a possible marriage


Early life and family


Born in Mumbai, Maharashtra into the Kapoor film family of Punjabi Khatri origin, Kapoor is the youngest daughter of actors Randhir Kapoor and Babita (née Shivdasani). She is the granddaughter of actor and filmmaker Raj Kapoor, great-granddaughter of actor Prithviraj Kapoor, sister of actress Karisma Kapoor and niece of actor Rishi Kapoor. According to Kapoor, the name "Kareena" was derived from the book Anna Karenina, which her mother read while she was pregnant with her. She is also often informally referred to as Bebo.

As children, the Kapoor sisters dreamed of becoming actresses. Kapoor was particularly inspired by actresses Nargis and Meena Kumari. However, despite her family background, her father disapproved of women acting because he believed it to be incompatible with their duty to the family. This led to conflict between her parents, and Kapoor's mother ultimately left her father. Kapoor was raised in Lokhandwala by her mother who worked several jobs to support her daughters until Karisma debuted as an actress in 1991.


Amitabh Bachchan


Amitabh Bachchan born Amitabh Harivansh Bachchan on 11 October 1942), is an Indian film actor. He first gained popularity in the early 1970s as the "angry young man" of Bollywood cinema, and has since become one of the most prominent figures in the history of Indian cinema.
Bachchan has won numerous major awards in his career, including three National Film Awards and twelve Filmfare Awards. He holds the record for most number of Best Actor nominations at the Filmfare Awards. In addition to acting, Bachchan has worked as a playback singer, film producer and television presenter, and was an elected member of the Indian Parliament from 1984 to 1987.

Bachchan is married to actress Jaya Bhaduri. They have two children, Shweta Nanda and Abhishek Bachchan

Early life


Born in Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh, Amitabh Bachchan hails from a Hindu-Sikh family. His father, Dr. Harivansh Rai Bachchan was a well-known Hindi poet, while his mother, Teji Bachchan was a Sikh-Punjabi from Faisalabad (now in Pakistan).Bachchan was initially named Inquilaab, inspired from the famous phrase Inquilab Zindabad, during the Indian independence struggle, but was re-named Amitabh which means, "the light that would never go off." Though his surname was Shrivastava, his father had adopted the pen-name Bachchan, under which he published all his works. It is with this last name that Amitabh debuted in films, and, for all public purposes, it has become the surname of all members of his current family.

Rani Mukerji


Rani Mukerji born on 21 March 1978, is an Indian film actress who works in Bollywood movies.

Making her acting debut with Raja Ki Aayegi Baraat (1996), Mukerji had her first commercial success with Karan Johar's romance Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (1998), her biggest hit so far, and won a Filmfare Best Supporting Actress Award for her performance in the film. She later starred in many films, most of which fared below expectations. She re-invented her image with the commercially and critically successful Saathiya (2002), for which she received numerous awards and nominations.

In 2004, her performances in the hit Hum Tum and the critically acclaimed Yuva earned her the Best Actress and the Best Supporting Actress awards at the Filmfare, making her the first actress to win two major awards in the same year. She received unanimous praise for her role as a deaf, dumb and blind girl in the film Black (2005), as well as many awards for her performance, establishing herself as a leading actress in Bollywood

Early life and background


Main article: Mukherjee-Samarth family

Mukerji comes from a film-oriented family of Hindu-Brahman origin. Her father Ram Mukherjee(Mukhya Upadhyay) is a retired director and one of the founders of Filmalaya Studios while her mother Krishna was a playback singer. Her brother Raja Mukherjee is a film producer, now turned director. Her maternal aunt, Debashree Rai, is a national award-winning Bangla film actress and her cousin, Kajol, is a popular Bollywood actress and another cousin, Ayan Mukerji is the writer and director of Wake Up Sid.

Mukerji is a trained Odissi dancer, and began learning the dance in the tenth grade. Mukerji studied at Maneckji Cooper High School in Juhu, and later enrolled at Mithibai College in Mumbai .

Personal life

Mukerji changed the English tranliteration of her surname from Mukherjee to Mukerji several years ago. At the time, it was reported that she did this for numerological reasons. In 2006, Mukerji stated that numerology was not a concern; her name had been put down as Mukerji on her passport, and she wanted to be consistent.

Ayesha Takia


Ayesha Takia Azmi (born Ayesha Takia  on 10 April 1986 is an Indian actress who appears in Bollywood movies.

Early life

Ayesha Takia was born in Mumbai, India to Nishant, a Gujarati Hindu, and her mother, Faridah, is an Anglo-Indian half British-Muslim. She went to St. Anthony's High School. She has a younger sister named Natasha and her cousin is the upcoming star Abdul Zafar.

Career

Ayesha started her career with the "I am a Complan Girl!" advertising campaign alongside Shahid Kapoor with both as child actor, she also appeared in a music video, Falguni Pathak's Meri Chunarii Udd Udd Jaye, when she was fifteen. She then appeared in the video, Shake It Daddy, when she was sixteen, which brought her to the attention of the movie industry, and a few film offers followed. She signed a contract for Socha Na Tha. However, there were delays in making Socha Na Tha so Taarzan released first and was therefore her "debut" film. She won the Filmfare Best Debut Award in 2004 for her performance in Taarzan: The Wonder Car. She earned critical acclaim for her performance in Nagesh Kukunoor's Dor with Taran Adarsh of Indiafm.com writing,". She accepted non-glamorous roles, which most actors don't do at the start of their career."
she was in love with Nishant prasar

Personal life

On 1 March 2009, she got married to Farhan Azmi in an Islamic Nikah ceremony, a restaurateur and the son of politician Abu Azmi, a Samajwadi Party leader. The couple had originally planned to marry in December 2008, but the wedding was delayed due to the Mumbai attacks.

Katrina Kaif


Katrina Kaif  (born Katrina Turquotte on 16 July 1984) is a British Indian actress and model who has appeared in Bollywood, Telugu and Malayalam films

Early life

Kaif was born in Hong Kong to a Muslim Kashmiri father, Mohammed Kaif, and a British mother, Suzzane Turquotte.Her mother, a Harvard graduate, was a lawyer but later became involved in charity work. Her parents separated when Kaif was very young. Kaif has seven siblings. She was raised in Hawaii and later moved to her mother's home country, England

Personal life

She has been dating Salman Khan since 2003. 

Career


At the age of fourteen she was approached by an agent and she began modeling; her first job was for a jewelry campaign. She continued modeling in London, under a contract with the Models 1 Agency and did campaigns for houses, such as La Senza and Arcadius and even walked on the London Fashion Week.

Kaif's London modeling-work led her to discover by London-based filmmaker Kaizad Gustad, who gave her a part in his film Boom (2003). She moved to Mumbai and was offered a number of modeling assignments. However, filmmakers were initially hesitant to sign her because she could not speak Hindi.

Kaif saw success with the 2005 film Sarkar where she played the bit part of Abhishek Bachchan's girlfriend. Her next release, Maine Pyaar Kyun Kiya (2005), where she was paired opposite Salman Khan, earned her the Stardust Breakthrough Performance Award.

Salman Khan


Abdul Rashid Salim Salman Khan  born 27 December 1965) is an Indian film actor who appears in Bollywood films.

Khan, who made his acting debut with the film Biwi Ho To Aisi (1988), had his first commercial success with the blockbuster Maine Pyar Kiya (1989), and won a Filmfare Best Male Debut Award for his performance. He went on to star in some of Bollywood's most successful films, such as Saajan (1991), Hum Aapke Hain Kaun (1994), Karan Arjun (1995), Biwi No.1 (1999), having appeared in the highest earning films of five separate years during his career.

In 1999, Khan won a Filmfare Best Supporting Actor Award for his extended appearance in Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (1998), and since then has starred in several critical and commercial successes, including Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam (1999), Tere Naam (2003), No Entry (2005) Partner (2007) and Wanted (2009). Khan has thus established himself as one of the most prominent leading actors of Hindi cinema


Personal life

Khan is the eldest son of celebrated screenwriter Salim Khan and his first wife Salma Khan (maiden name Sushila Charak). His stepmother is Helen, a famous yesteryear Bollywood actress, who has co-starred with him in Khamoshi: The Musical (1996) and Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam (1999). He has two brothers, Arbaaz Khan and Sohail Khan, and two sisters, Alvira and Arpita. Alvira is married to actor/director Atul Agnihotri.

Khan is a dedicated bodybuilder. He trains everyday and is famous for taking off his shirt in movies and stage shows alike. In 2004, he was voted 7th best-looking man in the World and the best looking man in India by People magazine, U.S. Khan has been involved in several charities during his career.

Despite being romantically linked with several actresses, and having relationships with ex-girlfriends Aishwarya Rai, Somy Ali and Sangeeta Bijlani, Khan is frequently featured by Indian media as Bollywood's most eligible bachelor. He has been dating model-turned-actress Katrina Kaif since 2003.

Saturday, January 2, 2010

AVARI HOTELS INTERNATIONAL




Since 1944 the Avari family have built, owned & managed hotels in Karachi, Lahore and Dubai. Inside Pakistan, the group owns and operates the 5-star "Avari Towers" in Karachi, the 5-star "Avari Lahore" and the seafront "Beach Luxury" in Karachi. The Group also manages a 4-star Deluxe property in Dubai, "Avari Dubai".
At every Avari Hotel you can be sure to receive the same warm welcome, be offered comfortable and well planned accommodation alongside varied choices of Food & Beverage options all delivered with local flair and finesse.

Who We Are

Mr Byram D Avari (Chairman) and his sons Dinshaw and Xerxes own and operate the Avari Group of Companies.
Hotels are the core business. The Group owns and operates:
  • The 240 room, full service 5-Star "Avari Towers" Hotel at Karachi is a recipient of Consumer Choice Award 2008. An extension of 100 rooms with a Ballroom for 2000 persons and an Ante-room for 1000 persons with Ladies and Gents Spa and additional Meeting Rooms is being planned on its 22,000 sq. yards of city center land. This is the first 5-Star Hotel on the main road from Karachi Airport.
  • The 188 room, full service 5-Star Deluxe "Avari Lahore" Hotel is situated on 48,000 sq.yards of land in the city center of Lahore, abutting the Mall. A development of US$350M is also being planned consisting of 3 separate towers - Office Towers, Condominium Towers and a Deluxe 350 All-Suite Hotel Tower, with a 450,000 sq.ft Mall, 1400 Car Park and 2000 persons Ballroom, 1000 persons Pre-function Room. Avari Lahore is the recipient of 5 consecutive World Travel Award for the Leading Hotel in Pakistan.
  • The 85 room 3-star "Beach Luxury" Hotel at Karachi is situated on 24,000 sq.yards of land along the seafront. This was the first hotel to open in 1948 after Partition and continues to enjoy the highest reputation for food & beverage. Its spacious lawns and Banqueting Halls cater to weddings, conferences and events, with a capacity of upto 3000 persons.

EMRAAN HASHMI


Emraan Hashmi (Hindi: इमरान हाश्मी, Urdu: عمران ہاشمی; born 24 March 1979 in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India), is a Filmfare Award-nominated Indian actor.

Early life

Emraan Anwar Hashmi, was born to Anwar Hashmi and Maherahh Hashmi. After briefly changing his first name to "Farhaan", he decided to keep his original name.

Movie career

Hashmi made his movie debut in 2003 with the film Footpath which did not do well at the box office. He and co-star Mallika Sherawat shot to fame with Murder. He later appeared in such films as Zeher, Aashiq anaya Apne, Kalyug, and Gangster, which have done well at the box office. The soundtracks from these films have helped create a large

Friday, January 1, 2010

Shahrukh Khan


Shahrukh Khan (Hindi: शाहरुख़ ख़ान, Urdu: شاہ رُخ خان; born 2 November 1965), sometimes credited as Shah Rukh Khan, is an Indian actor and a prominent Bollywood figure, as well as a film producer and television host.

Khan began his career appearing in several television serials in the late 1980s. He made his film debut in Deewana (1992). Since then, he has been part of numerous commercially successful films and has earned critical acclaim for many of his performances. Khan has won thirteen Filmfare Awards for his work in Indian films, seven of which are in the Best Actor category.


Khan was born in 1965 to Muslim parents of Pathan descent in New Delhi, India.His father, Taj Mohammed Khan, was an Indian independence activist from Peshawar, British India. According to Khan, his paternal grandfather was originally from Afghanistan.His mother, Lateef Fatima, was the adopted daughter of Major General Shah Nawaz Khan of the Janjua Rajput clan, who served as a General in the Indian National Army of Subash Chandra Bose.Khan's father came to New Delhi from Qissa Khawani Bazaar in Peshawar before the partition of India,while his mother's family came from Rawalpindi, British India.[8] Khan has an elder sister named Shehnaz.

Growing up in Rajendra Nagar neighbourhood,Khan attended St. Columba's School where he was accomplished in sports, drama, and academics. He won the Sword of Honour, an annual award given to the student who best represents the spirit of the school. Khan later attended the Hansraj College (1985-1988) and earned his Bachelors degree in Economics (honors). Though he pursued a Masters Degree in Mass Communications at Jamia Millia Islamia, he later opted out to make his career in Bollywood.

Colossus of Rhodes


“The Colossus of Rhodes” redirects here. For the film by Sergio Leone, see Il Colosso di Rodi.
This article is about the statue. For the children’s novel, see The Colossus of Rhodes (novel). For the basketball club, see Kolossos Rodou BC

The Colossus of Rhodes was a statue of the Greek god Helios, erected in the city of Rhodes on the Greek island of Rhodes by Chares of Lindos between 292 and 280 BC. It is considered one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Before its destruction, the Colossus of Rhodes stood over 30 meters (107 ft) high, making it one of the tallest statues of the ancient world.


Siege of Rhodes:

Alexander the Great died at an early age in 323 BC without having had time to put into place any plans for his succession. Fighting broke out among his generals, the Diadochi, with four of them eventually dividing up much of his empire in the Mediterranean area. During the fighting, Rhodes had sided with Ptolemy, and when Ptolemy eventually took control of Egypt, Rhodes and Ptolemaic Egypt formed an alliance which controlled much of the trade in the eastern Mediterranean.
Antigonus I Monophthalmus was upset by this turn of events. In 305 BC he had his son Demetrius Poliorcetes, also a general, invade Rhodes with an army of 40,000; however, the city was well defended, and Demetrius—whose name “Poliorcetes” signifies the “besieger of cities”—had to start construction of a number of massive siege towers in order to gain access to the walls. The first was mounted on six ships, but these capsized in a storm before they could be used. He tried again with a larger, land-based tower named Helepolis, but the Rhodian defenders stopped this by flooding the land in front of the walls so that the rolling tower could not move.
In 304 BC a relief force of ships sent by Ptolemy arrived, and Demetrius’s army abandoned the siege, leaving most of their siege equipment. To celebrate their victory, the Rhodians sold the equipment left behind for 300 talents (roughly US$360 million in today’s money) and decided to use the money to build a colossal statue of their patron god, Helios. Construction was left to the direction of Chares, a native of Lindos in Rhodes, who had been involved with large-scale statues before. His teacher, the sculptor Lysippos, had constructed a 22 meter (70 ft) high bronze statue of Zeus at Tarentu



Lighthouse of Alexandria



The Lighthouse of Alexandria (or the Pharos of Alexandria, Greek: ὁ Φάρος τῆς Ἀλεξανδρείας) was a tower built in the 3rd century BC (between 285 and 247 BC) on the island of Pharos in Alexandria, Egypt, to serve as that port’s landmark, and later, its lighthouse.
With a height variously estimated at between 115 and 135 m (380 and 440 ft) it was identified as one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World by Antipater of Sidon. It may have been the world’s third tallest building after the two Great Pyramids (of Khufu and Khafra) for its entire life

History:

Pharos was a small island just off the coast of Alexandria. It was linked to the mainland by a man-made connection named the Heptastadion, which thus formed one side of the city’s harbor. As the Egyptian coast is very flat and lacking in the kind of landmark used at the time for navigation[clarification needed], a marker of some sort at the mouth of the harbour was deemed necessary — a function the Pharos was initially designed to serve. Use of the building as a lighthouse, with a fire and reflective mirrors at the top, is thought to date to around the 1st century AD, during the Roman period. Prior to that time the Pharos served solely as a landmark or day beacon.

Construction and destruction:

The lighthouse was completed in the 3rd century BC, after having been initiated by Satrap (governor) Ptolemy I Soter, Egypt’s first Macedonian ruler and a general of Alexander the Great. After Alexander died unexpectedly at age 32, Ptolemy Soter announced himself king in 305 BC, and ordered its construction shortly thereafter. The building was finished during his son Ptolemy Philadelphos’s reign.
According to legend, Ptolemy forbade Sostratus to put his name on his work. But the architect left the following inscription on the base’s walls nonetheless:

“Sostratus, the son of Dexiphanes, the Cnidian, dedicated (or erected) this to the Saviour gods, on behalf of those who sail the seas”; the original Greek inscription “ΣΟΣΤΡΑΤΟΣ ΔΕΞΙΦΑΝΟΥ ΚΝΙΔΙΟΣ ΘΕΟΙΣ ΣΩΤΕΡΣΙΝ ΥΠΕΡ ΤΩΝ ΠΛΩΙΖΟΜΕΝΩΝ” literally means: “Sostratos of Dexiphanes [meaning: son of Dexiphanes] the Cnidian to Saviour Gods for the seafarers (or seafaring [ones])”