Tower of the Winds
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The Tower of the Winds, also called horologion (timepiece), is an octagonal Pentelic marble tower on the Roman agora in Athens. It was supposedly built by Andronicus of Cyrrhus around 50 BC, but according to other sources might have been constructed in the 2nd century BC before the rest of the forum.
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The 12 m tall structure has a diameter of about 8 m and was topped in antiquity by a weathervane-like Triton that indicated the wind direction. Below the frieze depicting the eight wind deities — Boreas (N), Kaikias (NE), Eurus (E), Apeliotes (SE), Notus (S), Lips (SW), Zephyrus (W), and Skiron (NW) — there are nine sundials. In its interior, there was a water clock (or clepsydra), driven by water coming down from the Acropolis.
In early Christian times, the building was used as the bell tower of a Byzantine Church. It was partly buried in the ground until it was fully excavated in the 19th century by the Archaeological Society of Athens.
The design of the 18th-century Radcliffe Observatory in Oxford, England, is based on the Tower of the Winds, as is the mausoleum of the founder of the Greek National Library Panayis Vagliano at West Norwood Cemetery, London. It has also inspired the 15th century Torre del Marzocco in Livorno. There is a similar tower in Sevastopol, built in 1849.
 The Tower of the Winds |
 General view of the tower, from Stuart & Revett's The Antiquities of Athens, 1762 |
 Layout of the interior of the tower, from Stuart & Revett's The Antiquities of Athens |
 18th-century reconstruction of the Tower of the Winds from The Antiquities of Athens |
 Vagliano tomb at West Norwood Cemetery, London, inspired by the Tower |
 The Tower of the Winds in Sevastopol |
 The Tower of the Winds in Sevastopol |
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