HORMIGAS ISLANDS' LIGHTHOUSE
The Port Authority has recently restored Hormigas Islands' lighthouse. That lighthouse is listed as fifth order, it is located 2.5 miles from Cabo de Palos on La Hormiga island, an archipelago located to the East of the Cape.
The lighthouse that we know today was built in 1870, after the previous one was destroyed in 1860 due to a great gale generated by easterly wind.
This lighthouse serves to signal to navigation the danger posed by the islets and rocky elevations of the area (shoals).
As a curiosity, it was the first lighthouse that was automated in Spain, in the year 1920.
ARCHITECTURE
The construction consists of two parts, a circular building of about 20m outside diameter and a white cylindrical tower, like the light that it projects.
After several modifications to modernise the light source, it is automated and it is endowed with solar energy through 6 solar panels.
The light is about 12m high from the base of the building and about 23m above sea level. Its range is 8 nautical miles (14.8 km). The signal is white light and the characteristic of groups of 3 flashes, being its period of 14 seconds.
From 1936 on, because of the Spanish Civil War it also had blackouts by order of the Navy authorities.