Leaning Lighthouses
The Leaning Lighthouse of Puerto Morelos, Mexico, 'El Faro Inclinado', is a distinctive blue and white landmark in the seaside town of Puerto Morelos, halfway between Cancun and Playa del Carmen. It was built on the beach in 1946, replacing a rudimentary light on a metal pole, which had been in place since 1905.
About twenty years after its construction, Hurricane Beulah struck it, washing away the foundations, and causing it to tilt. Efforts to remove it failed and so it remains, a testament, were it needed, to the destructive power of hurricanes.
A lighthouse was essential, to warn vessels of the Great Mayan Reef that stretches more than 700 miles along the coasts of Mexico, Belize, Guatemala and Honduras, so in 1968, a third lighthouse was built. It also fell foul of a hurricane, Wilma, in 2005, but managed to remain vertical.
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In Estonia, the Kiipsaare Lighthouse stood on the tip of the island of Saaremaa. It was built in 1993, to warn seafarers in the Baltic Sea of the peninsula and to act as a waypoint.
Although it was originally almost a mile inland, erosion has meant that it is now 160 feet offshore and leaning. It is no longer active.
Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons
Meanwhile, in Germany, the Bremerhaven lighthouse, at the entrance to Bremen’s port, was listing so dangerously in 2022 that ships were forbidden to enter the Geeste River, for fear the building would collapse. The proposed plan was to demolish it if it didn’t topple by itself. This is quite a confused story and research leads to different accounts and photographs of structures that look completely unlike each other. However, it appears that it was pulled down eventually and part of it used in the construction of a replacement.
Oh my goodness, look at all those leaning lighthouses! Thanks for sharing them, fascinating!
ReplyDeleteA slight lean would be okay, but these are extreme:-)
DeleteI love them! There is one that I know of in the US - just because Jane had a statue of it - Sharps Island Lighthouse. Quite interesting. I love lighthouses!
ReplyDeleteI like lighthouses, too - there's something very magical about them.
DeleteI love lighthouses, but I think leaning ones wouldn't be safe structures.
ReplyDeleteSome have leant a little too far . . .
DeleteI don't think I'd like to be lying on the Mexican beach near the leaning light house. All very interesting.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if it will remain there for ever.
DeleteNever knew about these tilting lighthouses!
ReplyDeleteLive and learn (I do, every day . . . )
DeleteI, too, had never heard of any leaning lighthouses before. So many of them!
ReplyDeleteAt least they haven't fallen into the sea . . . yet.
DeleteI never realized there were so many around the world. I have sailed past two of those you show - most local to northern Europe - I do love a good stripey lighthouse
ReplyDeleteA lighthouse isn't a lighthouse in my book if it isn't striped like a woolly sock.
DeleteThose are amazing light houses. We have on at Cape Hatteras North Carolina that was not listing, but the beach was eroding so badly they actually put huge huge round timbers under it and rolled it farther inland! Took quite a long summer to do. I saw it after it was moved and climbed up. And I am terrified of heights, but I was determined to do it as it is 800 miles away and I'll never be back.
ReplyDeleteIt's amazing when such structures are moved - must be nail-biting stuff.
DeleteI was intrigued to read about the first leaning lighthouse and was incredulous to find there was more than one! xxx
ReplyDeleteIt came as quite a surprise to me, too.
DeleteHow interesting! We're fortunate to have two lighthouses less than 30 miles distant on our Northern California coast: Battery Point and St. George Reef.
ReplyDeleteI wonder how many disasters have been averted by lighthouses.
DeleteHow interesting. You would have thought there would be more than one.
ReplyDeleteThey do look funny, though.
DeleteImagine climbing up the Estonian lighthouse, even if the climb had been safe. Steep and exhausting
ReplyDeleteI'd rather not . . . ;-)
DeleteYikes. The Bremerhaven lighthouse did have an interesting backstory, and I see the confusion. One website even said it was built in 1855 and was still standing.
ReplyDeleteTeasing out information can be quite trying at times!
DeleteI'd never heard about leaning lighthouses, this was very interesting.
ReplyDeleteAll the best Jan
I was surprised to discover them.
DeleteThose are amazing structures.
ReplyDeleteEven better when they were upright!
DeleteHi Janice - interesting to read about the leaning towers - I'd have never have known ... so thank you. I managed to avoid including the Towner this time - but it's instilled in my typing fingers, apparently! Cheers Hilary
ReplyDeleteSometimes, fingers just do their own thing . . .
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