The Republic of Panamá is at the southeastern end of the isthmus of Central America, providing the crucial link between the continents of North America and South America. The country is aligned west to east, facing the Caribbean Sea to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the south. This page includes lighthouses of Panamá's Pacific coast. There is another page for lighthouses of the Caribbean coast, including Gatún Lake. As one might expect, many of the lighthouses of Panamá are associated with passage through the Panama Canal. The Canal opened on 15 August 1914 after ten years of U.S. construction following earlier work by a French company. In 1903, shortly after winning its independence from Colombia, Panama granted the U.S. extraterritorial jurisdiction over the Panama Canal Zone. The Zone remained under exclusive U.S. control until the 1978 Panama Canal Treaty provided for its restoration to Panama in 1979. Under the treaty Panama assumed full operation of the Canal at the end of 1999. The U.S. Panama Canal Commission, which operated the canal until the reversion, was replaced by the Autoridad del Canal de Panamá (Panama Canal Authority). The U.S. built about three dozen range lighthouses to guide ships through the Canal. Most of these lighthouses survive but the Canal Authority has completed a project to replace nearly all of them with skeletal towers. The deactivated lighthouses are painted black, making them somewhat harder to spot. They are not being demolished routinely (so far, anyway) but all of them should be considered endangered. The Authority has doubled the capacity of the Canal, constructing two new sets of locks and widening and deepening the entire route. The original locks were not removed; to maximize capacity both sets of locks are operated. Groundbreaking for this enormous project was held in September 2007 and the new locks began operating in June 2016. Fortunately it was not necessary to remove any of the historic lighthouses to construct the new locks and channels. Since the Isthmus of Panama runs west to east northbound on the Canal means toward the Atlantic and southbound is toward the Pacific. Navigational aids in Panamá are maintained by the Maritime Authority (Autoridad Marítima de Panamá). Apparently this includes the lights of the Canal. The Spanish word for a lighthouse is faro; isla is an island, cabo is a cape, punta is a promontory or point of land, péñon is a rock, arrecife is a reef, bahía is a bay, ría is an estuary or inlet, estrecho is a strait, río is a river, and puerto is a port or harbor. Also, the Spanish word canal means a natural channel, not an artificial canal. ARLHS numbers are from the ARLHS World List of Lights. Admiralty numbers are from volume J of the Admiralty List of Lights & Fog Signals for the Panama Canal and from volume G for the Pacific coast. U.S. NGA numbers are from Publication 111. The lights of the Canal are not listed by NGA.
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Eastern Gulf of Panamá Lighthouses
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![]() Flamenco Island Light, Balboa, December 2013 photo copyright Capt. Peter Mosselberger; used by permission |
Panamá Province: Panamá Canal Lighthouses
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![]() Miraflores Southbound Rear Light, Balboa, June 2020 photo copyright Capt. Peter Mosselberger; used by permission |
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![]() Pacific Entrance Range Front Light, Balboa, August 2020 photo copyright Capt. Peter Mosselberger; used by permission |
Western Gulf of Panamá Lighthouses
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Western Pacific Coast Lighthouses
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Information available on lost lighthouses:
Notable faux lighthouses:
Adjoining pages: North: Northern Panamá | South: Western Colombia | West: Costa Rica
Return to the Lighthouse Directory index | Ratings key
Posted April 2001. Checked and revised December 15, 2024. Lighthouses: 34. Site copyright 2024 Russ Rowlett and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.