Tower of the Winds
[1] It is "one of the very small number of buildings from classical antiquity that still stands virtually intact", as it has been continuously occupied for a series of different functions.
[3] It also housed a large water clock and incorporated sundials placed prominently on its exterior faces; "citizens were thus able by using this building to orient themselves in space and time.
[4] According to A. W. Lawrence, "the originality of this building is exceptional, and of a character out of keeping with Hellenistic architecture as we know it ... the design is obviously Greek, both in the severity of decorative treatment and in the antiquated method of roofing.
It has also been known as the Horologium in Latin, the term used by Varro, or Horologion (Ancient Greek: Ὡρολόγιον, Hōrológion), from hṓra (ὥρα, "time period, hour") lógos (λόγος, "writing, recording") + -ion (-ιον), together usually meaning a sundial, clepsydra, or other timekeeping device but here used to describe the location housing them.
In antiquity, Vitruvius tells us it was topped by a bronze statue of a Triton, holding a rod that acted as a weather vane indicating the wind direction; this has completely disappeared.
[6][7] The frieze has reliefs, rather over life-size, of the eight wind deities—Boreas (N), Kaikias (NE), Apeliotes (E), Eurus (SE), Notus (S), Livas (SW), Zephyrus (W), and Skiron (NW)—there are eight sundials.
[12] The capital on the roof, which supported the Triton weather-vane, used the same form; the broken lower part of this remains in place.
A passage in Vitruvius's chapter on town planning in his On Architecture (De architectura) seems to be based on this missing book.
[17] The London Vitruvius, the oldest surviving manuscript, includes only one of the original illustrations, a rather crudely drawn octagonal wind rose in the margin.
The roof has traces of blue paint, and may have depicted the sky in some way, even been some form of planetarium; there were no windows in the original building.
[22] Later, the water supply was converted from underground pipes to a small aqueduct, the last section of which partially remains next to the tower.
The large, slightly curving, channel in the floor leading from the turret tank to the central hole may also have been added at this point.
The large reliefs characterize each wind in terms of the things they carry, and often spill out from containers, the warmth of their clothing, and to some extent their physiques and expressions.
[36] From a cross on an inside wall, and traces of paintings, the building was probably used as a martyrium for an apostle,[37] church or baptistry in late antiquity.
[38] By the time of Ottoman rule it was buried up to half its height, and traces of this can be observed in the interior, where Turkish inscriptions may be found on the walls.
[39] The building became better known outside Greece from 1762, when a description and several careful measured engraved illustrations were published in London in the first volume of The Antiquities of Athens.
By this point depictions and early photographs show that the surrounding ground level had risen by several feet, and entry was by a sort of trench around part of the building.
[42] The Pharos was also decorated with statues of Tritons, usually shown at the top of the octagonal section on coins, and perhaps one on each of the eight sides, but it is not known whether it showed interest in the winds, or had sundials, a weather-vane or a clock.
