It is considered to be the worlds first meteorological station.
Tower of the Winds.
These ancient observant farmers recognized that the quality of winds differed depending on where the wind was blowing from.
Some winds were humid, some were dry, some hot and some cold.
Sailors too relied heavily on wind directions and could also recognize a particular wind by its qualities.
The ancient Greeks originally maintained distinct and separate systems of points and winds.
Eventually, both systems were merged, and wind names gradually came to denote cardinal directions as well.
Aristotle explained that each wind had different meteorological properties.
For instance, winds on the NW-SE axis are generally dry, while the NE-SW winds are wet.
However, Aristotle’s system was asymmetric.
On the sides facing the sun, are the lines of a sundial.
Its use as a weather station, however, was short lived.
During the Roman times the tower was vandalized and the mechanism looted.
Then, the building became a clock tower for an Eastern Orthodox church.
Under Ottoman rule, the monument was also used as a place of worship by Sufi Muslim Whirling Dervishes.
The monument was largelyclosed to the publicsince the Dervishes left in 1828.
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