Faro de la Mola

La Mola is a flat meseta on the Island of Formentera that is 192 meters above sea level, and is located at the very end of the island. The Faro de la Mola is a lighthouse at one end of a cliff, and this cliff has spectacular views of the sea. Queen Isabel II ordered it built and its engineer was Emilio Pou. It was first lighted on Nov. 30, 1861, and was the first lighthouse built on the island of Formentera. Many times it is called the Faro de Formentera. The light from this lighthouse reaches 23 nautical miles and it was electrified in 1973. The area it covers is 300 square meters, and in the past it has housed three families of lighthouse keepers at one time. The lighthouse was not lighted only on two occasions, during the Spanish-American War and during the Spanish Civil War. The reason it was built is that between 1860 and 1880 there were many maritime accidents in the seas nearby.

Nearby is a monument dedicated in 1978 to Jules Verne, who wrote a novel with Formentera as the setting. The novel was “Hector Servadac” and was published in 1877. He also wrote the “Lighthouse at the End of the World”. Around the lighthouse are found many green lizards.