The Tower of the Winds, or the Horologion of Andronikos Kyrrhestes, is an elegant octagonal marble tower in the Roman Agora in Athens. It is considered to be the world’s first meteorological station. More than 2,000 years old, the tower has eight sides corresponding to the eight principle winds, a sundial to tell time, a wind vane to show the direction of wind and an interior water clock that in antiquity could be read even in darkness.

Each of the building’s eight sides face a point of the compass and is decorated with a frieze of figures in relief representing the winds that blow from that direction.

Tower of the Winds. Photo credit: Viacheslav Lopatin/Shutterstock