Tourlitis Lighthouse

As lighthouses go, you can’t get much more evocative than the Tourlitis Lighthouse off the coast of the Greek port city of Andros. Rising up out of a weather-worn stone spire, the beacon looks like something straight out of a fantasy novel. 

The lighthouse was first built in 1897 just off shore from a castle in Andros. The stone column on which it was built had been shaped by millennia of natural erosion into the perfect pedestal for a coastal beacon. Unfortunately the original lighthouse was not long for this world, and was destroyed during World War II. For a time, the rocky outcropping went without a proper lighthouse, and the fantastical image created by the former structure was all but lost.

However, the lovely beacon apparently had an extra life. The lighthouse was eventually rebuilt in the early 1990s by an oil tycoon who dedicated the structure to his daughter. The replica became Greece’s first automated lighthouse, eliminating the need for an onsite keeper to operate the light. But even with the modern upgrade, the lighthouse still looks like something out of Dungeon and Dragons, with the winding staircase hewn from the rock itself, leading up to the door of the tower.

Since its renovation, it has become one of the area’s foremost tourist attractions, drawing lighthouse peepers and photographers who come to gawk at its singular beauty.