Biloxi Lighthouse

The Biloxi Lighthouse stands in the median of Highway 90, a 61-foot cast-iron tower that has looked out over the Mississippi Sound since 1848. It is the most recognisable landmark in a city that has reinvented itself many times. Guided tours allow visitors to climb the interior spiral staircase to the lantern room and look out over the casino strip, the beach, and the water — a jarring contrast of eras.

The lighthouse is open for tours most days; check local schedules as hours vary by season. The beach access beside the lighthouse is a good starting point for a walk along the shore. A female lighthouse keeper, Maria Younghans, tended the light for nearly 50 years from 1867 onward, becoming one of the longest-serving keepers in American lighthouse history.

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Built in 1848 from cast iron, the Biloxi Lighthouse is one of the few structures on the beachfront that survived Hurricane Katrina in 2005 — and it survived Camille in 1969 before that. After Katrina, the lighthouse stood alone in a field of debris for months, its beam still operational, as one of the only intact structures on a coast that had been all but erased.