Pharos
Although believed to have been founded in ancient times by the Sea Peoples and a center of learning for millennia, this city and its famous port were primarily built up by the Hyperboreans during the rise of their hegemony over Khemit in the 13th Dynasty. Located on the coast of the Sea of Baal in the Western Desert, near the border with what is now Guurzan, Pharos has long been a key part of Khemit’s defense against tribes from west of the Qarrasat Hills. Its immense lighthouse, whose light can be seen for as much as 35 miles, was also the first and greatest of a line of smaller signaling towers along the coast to Rashad in The Delta of the Stygian. The port itself is its own marvel. Entered just east of the lighthouse and oriented east and west, it has a straight portion that offers berths for merchant ships, with enough space for 50 ships on each side of the channel. Past that is the interior portion of the port, which the Hyperboreans constructed for their military ships only. It is circular, built around a manmade island, and offers covered slips for more than 200 ships around its outer perimeter.
The city itself is a cosmopolitan mix of standard Khemitian architecture with the elaborate stone structures of the Hyperboreans. This blending is also seen in religious edifices; the city has temples in the Hyperborean style to Osiris, Isis, and Horus, one of the powerful triads of the Khemitian gods. Of course, the Hyperborean gods are also well represented. The great deities have impressive temples, many of which are still active locations of popular worship. The minor gods also have their places, though; it is said that every deity of Hyperborea had a temple someplace in Pharos, and most still have someone to light their altar fires.
In addition to religious locations, Pharos is full of civic works. Even just providing water for the city is an engineering achievement and is accomplished through a series of very deep cisterns whose long sides are supported by worked stone. Another landmark institution was a school, started during the 5th Dynasty by priests of Seshat, goddess of writing and knowledge. That small school grew to be the massive University of All Knowledge, which claims to teach all branches of learning. Its growth eventually drew it away from its religious roots, but it is said that sculptures from the original temple still remain inside one of the university buildings (no one is quite sure which one). The high seat of Seshat is in a larger temple that was built during the 14th Dynasty, facing the Great Library.
More notably, those early priests began a collection of writings in honor of their goddess. They gathered writings not just from Khemit but from all over Libynos. By the time the Hyperboreans arrived, the Great Library of Pharos had become a separate institution, and the librarians were thrilled to discover the existence of more cultures whose writings could be collected. The Hyperboreans assisted the library by donating copies of all official documents and many personal items, which resulted in explosive growth of the collection and (of necessity) the building. These days, scholars from the Great Library travel throughout Libynos, and to other parts of the world to gather writings and to transcribe histories and lore where that has not yet been done.
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