Plate 96. The Arch of the Tower of the Winds

We have at Plate 60 mentioned that in the interior of this building was once a water clock or clepsydra, the water for the running of which was conveyed to the building by means of a peculiar aqueduct.* This aqueduct consisted of a row of piers connected by arches, over which was a cornice containing the water channel. Our plate gives at Fig. 1 an elevation of a part of this arcade, and at Fig. 2 a section. Each pillar is divided on the face by a shallow recess into two pilasters which rest on a common plinth and are crowned with peculiar imposts. At Fig. 4 is a vertical section through the recess between the pillars. The arch form does not represent a true arch, but is in effect a lintel spanning from center to center of pier with a half cylinder hollowed out. Besides the archivolt cut on this huge stone, a moulding surrounds the three straight sides, and at the vertical ends hides the joints in a very clever manner. This moulding also brings about an excellent surface division of the spandrel, each part of which is ornamented with a rosette.

Of the entablature thereover, only the architrave and frieze are preserved, the members of which, as also those of the archivolts, are shown at Fig. 3. The corona, with the dentils underneath, is a restoration. Also it has been taken for granted that the arcade terminated at a corner, which we have effected by means of a pilaster the same height as the arch lintel. The plan of the corner is shown at Fig. 5.

* According to a later edition of Mauch this arcade did not, as formerly presumed, belong to the Tower of the Winds, but to a portico forming a portion of the building which bordered on the great market lying between the Hadrian Museum on the north and the Acropolis on the south. The time of the erection of this portico falls in the first emperor's time.— ED.