Roman Agora of Athens

The Roman Agora of Athens, entered from Pelopida 24 in the Monastiraki district, was constructed in the 1st century BCE under Julius Caesar and Augustus as a commercial marketplace supplementing the older Ancient Greek Agora to the west. The site is dominated by the remarkable Tower of the Winds (Horologion of Andronikos Kyrrhestes), an octagonal Pentelic marble tower built around 50 BCE that served simultaneously as a wind vane, water clock, and sundial — one of the most complete and best-preserved ancient structures in all of Greece. The tower's eight faces are carved with relief figures representing each of the eight winds, each identified by small compass-direction wings; a bronze weathervane in the form of a Triton originally crowned the pointed conical top. The ticketed site also preserves the Gate of Athena Archegetis (11 BCE), a Doric marble gateway standing largely complete, along with the foundations of the colonnaded market building and a well-preserved Ottoman mosque (the Fethiye Mosque, 15th century) that occupies the eastern section of the site. This architectural layering of Greek, Roman, and Ottoman remains in a single compact site is unusual and gives the Roman Agora an interest beyond the Tower alone. The site is compact; a thorough visit takes 45–60 minutes, and it is naturally combined with adjacent Hadrian's Library and Monastiraki Square.