Athens: - Plaka Straits lead to the world oldest Meteorological Station
Walking through the Plaka Straits, under the watchful eye of the Acropolis, one can admire many neoclassical buildings, low houses and small beautiful corners of old Athens. However, taking such a walk, it is impossible not to catch the eye of the Tower of the Winds or the Monument of the Winds. A monument that stands there from the 1st Century BC. The octagonal tower, 13.5 meters high, is made of Pentelic marble and was designed by the astronomer Andronikos from Kyrros, Macedonia (which is why it is sometimes called the Clock of the Lord).
The fate of several ancient monuments of many countries, including Greece, was not good since some were destroyed while others were emigrated forever and are in museums of foreign countries. The Tower of the Winds, however, was lucky because of the Dervishes where they considered it sacred and thus did not allow Elgin to take it.
To this day, the exact reason for its construction, in the middle of the Roman Agora, is not known. According to the estimates of archaeologists, it is probably a kind of meteorological station, which also functioned as a clock, which was probably used by the merchants of the time to calculate the time and the prevailing winds and the influence of the commercial itineraries that reached the their products in the then markets of the world.
At the top of the roof there was a brass wind vane in the form of a Triton, which rotated to indicate, holding a pointer, the direction of one of the eight main winds. The winds, personified, are said to fly in relief (winged) at the top of each side of the tower, each carrying a special symbol.
