Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Tower of the Winds

It was built in the 2dn Century BC as a weather vane and water clock, and stands inside the Roman Agora. Its external frieze depicts faces of the eight winds. It seems that Athens back then was as hot as today and needed the winds to cool it down. Today we don't erect such monuments, we just turn on the AC. :-)

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I remember this tower, when we were making " peripatetic walking" around Acropolis three years ago. The story was captivating,the tower of winds.
after walking we went to Finland-Athens Institute near Acropolis for a lunch. Nice day and nice trip!
Have a good year 2007!

Meg said...

Very beautiful. I chuckled at the thought of you mentioning casually that it's 2C BC... I don't think I've ever seen anything so old in person.

Lorraine said...

Spectacular!