Port Said is a product of the Suez Canal. Located near the Mediterranean entry, the town was founded by Sa’id of Egypt on the same day Ferdinand de Lesseps cast the first symbolic shovel of sand to start construction of the canal in 1859. Nearly everything needed to build the city had to be imported, including stone. There was one rock outcrop which was extended with a wooden jetty, and this single solid footing formed the center of the city, and today is the Tourist Jetty with its memorial statue of M. de Lesseps. The octagonal Lighthouse of Port Said is a significant architectural accomplishment, being the first building in the world made from reinforced conglomerate concrete. The lighthouse was finished in 1869, just a few weeks before the canal was opened. The same concrete technique was use the create the jetties of the port.