GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — In the past when fishermen entered the waters off Gaza at night, they relied on lights attached to their small vessels to guide them. Lighthouses never led their way. Such structures had never been part of their culture or navigational practices. Now, however, a lighthouse stands at the center of Gaza's port.

If compared to well-known lighthouses in the Arab world, it resembles neither Beirut’s 197-foot-tall modern lighthouse nor the 394-foot-tall historic lighthouse of Alexandria. In fact, Gaza's lighthouse is a 45-foot-tall artwork whose light shines some 2 miles into the Mediterranean Sea.

Resting on a 13-foot-wide concrete base, the lighthouse features a tower decorated with multicolored tiles and topped with a clear plastic dome. It’s also made up of previously used and recycled materials, much of it collected from the destruction left by the 2014 Israeli war against Gaza, including building stones, material from cooking utensils and assorted debris.

The lighthouse was inaugurated June 4 by the artist who designed it, Sharif Sarhan. Its construction was overseen by the Ministries of Culture, Transport and Communications in Gaza with the financial support of the A.M. Qattan Foundation and the Danish Center for Culture and Development.