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The Tower of the Winds, or the Chronology of Andronikos of Kirchus, is an elegant octagonal Pentelic marble clocktower in the Roman Agora in Athens. and the best-preserved ancient building in Athens. It is considered the world’s first meteorological station.the monument is also called Aerides (Greek: Αέρηδες).
A tower over 2000 years old has eight sides corresponding to eight main winds, with a sundial for determining the time and a weather vane to show the direction of the wind. There is also an internal water clock that in ancient times could be read even in the dark.
It was built in the late Hellenistic period and served as a clock pavilion with the function of a weather station. The 13 m high tower was designed by the astronomer Andronikos from Kyrrhos in the 1st century BC.
description: Pentelic marble was used for the construction. According to the mythological wind system of the Greeks, the tower has eight sides. A sundial is attached to each of the eight sides of the tower, a ninth was probably located on the southern round annex. Above it is a relief for one of the wind gods.
Each figure (four main and four secondary winds) shows the character of the respective wind through its attributes (e.g. rain, hail, fruit, etc.). There is an entrance on each of the north-east and north-west sides. On the roof was the figure of a bronze triton, which could turn as a weather vane and with its staff pointed the prevailing wind direction. In the tower were a water meter and other devices powered by water power, This was supplied from a water reservoir located on the south side of the tower, which was fed by a pipe from a source on the north slope of the acropolis.
Each of the eight sides of the Tower of the Winds corresponds to a point on the compass and is decorated with a frieze of relief figures representing blowing from a certain direction of the wind.
in 2016 the tower was restored and opened to the public after almost two hundred years of desolation, as an extremely significant historical attraction of Athens. Today, this place is visited daily by hundreds of tourists.
