Tower of the Winds of Athens
Torre de los Vientos de Atenas
- Date
- c. 50 BCE · confidence low
- Place
- Roman Agora of Athens, Attica, Greece
- Credited to
- Andronicus of Cyrrhus (according to Vitruvius)
- Field
- Knowledge & symbols
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
An octagonal marble tower with a sundial on each face aligned to a wind, a Triton weathervane on top and, inside, a water clock fed by a reservoir. It combined daytime, night-time and wind direction in a single building.
Dating ranges from the 2nd century BC to the mid-1st century BC; Vitruvius names Andronicus, but the date of the building and of its interior water mechanism is debated.
What it led to
- a public time reference in an ancient city
- a model for monumental clocks with weathervanes