Sometimes when researching an article or photo I come across a beautiful picture of a lighthouse that I just must have for my collection, screensaver, or . . . you know the feeling.

Well, I received a PowerPoint file (.PPS) the other day in an email and it had a lot of photos of European towns, as well as two lighthouse photos (photos 11 and 44 in the PPS file) – the one above, and the one at the bottom of this article. 

I was curious where.the lighthouse photos above and below were located as the PPS file had no information on any of the fifty-seven (57) photos, so using Google Image Search I pasted a copy of the photo into the search box and Google gave me this page

If you have never used Google Image Search before, it is a great resource to identify pictures, graphics, paintings and photos from the Internet that have no text or identification with them.

As you can see from the search above I found this page which says the photo is of Ketchikan, Alaska. OK, they have lighthouses in America, even though the rest of the photos were of European towns, a lighthouse photo is a lighthouse photo!

Reading further on the above page I discovered:

This photo is of Creek Street in Ketchikan that has been renovated and is now a popular tourist attraction. Creek Street was formerly the Ketchikan “red light” district that consisted of nothing but bordellos. The object, appearing as a small red box in the trees, in the upper center of the photo is the funicular¹ that carries passengers to the Westmark Cape Fox Hotel high up on the bluff above. This hotel is one of the premier hotels in all of Alaska and has a fantastic view of almost all of Ketchikan including the port and cruise ships.

 So, the red lighthouse turned out to be a funicular railway car to a hotel – not a lighthouse. That is why it is always good to check!

But the photo below is definitely of a lighthouse, but where? Is it a painting or a photo? My Google Search does not give a clue. It looks like everybody has used the photo – I even found a website with the original photos included in the PPS file which is called Beautiful Villages Around the World Part 1 which changes my thinking that all the photos were of European towns! Does anybody have a clue where, or of what is in this photo?

FOOTNOTE:

¹ Funicular – of a railroad, esp. one on a mountainside) operating by cable with ascending and descending cars counterbalanced. see more at Wikipedia