Roman Agora and Tower of the Winds

When Athens came under Roman rule the commercial heart moved east from the old Agora into a new colonnaded square, funded by Julius Caesar and Augustus and entered through the Gate of Athena Archegetis, whose four Doric columns still stand. The star of the site is the Tower of the Winds, built in the first century BC by the astronomer Andronicus of Cyrrhus: an octagonal marble tower twelve metres high, each face carved with a relief of the wind that blows from that direction, each also bearing the lines of a sundial. Inside it once held a water clock driven by a stream from the Acropolis, and a bronze weathervane turned on the roof. It survived by being used continuously, as a church and later as a Sufi lodge, and its interior can now be visited.

What you actually see

• The Tower of the Winds - eight carved wind gods, sundials and the old water clock.
• The Gate of Athena Archegetis - the Doric entrance to the Roman market square.
• The colonnade foundations - the shops and porticoes around the courtyard.
• The Fethiye Mosque - the fifteenth-century mosque standing in one corner.

When to go

Morning light suits the tower's reliefs; the site is small and can be combined with the Ancient Agora on the same walk. Winter is quiet and pleasant.

Honest expectations

It is a compact site of foundations with one exceptional building, seen in under an hour. Signage is limited. Most of the pleasure is the tower itself, which repays a slow circuit to find all eight winds.

Nearby

The Ancient Agora is a short walk west, Plaka's lanes surround the site, and the Acropolis rises directly above.