The Tower of Aliartos or Tower of Moulki is a late medieval

tower A tower is a tall structure, taller than it is wide, often by a significant factor. Towers are distinguished from masts by their lack of guy-wires and are therefore, along with tall buildings, self-supporting structures. Towers are specifi ...

near

Aliartos Aliartos ( el, Αλίαρτος) is a small town and municipality in the Boeotia regional unit, Greece, at 109 kilometres from Athens. The 2011 census recorded 10,887 residents in the municipality, 6,094 residents in the municipal unit and 4,847 in ...

, in

Boeotia Boeotia ( ), sometimes Latinized as Boiotia or Beotia ( el, Βοιωτία; modern: ; ancient: ), formerly known as Cadmeis, is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the region of Central Greece. Its capital is Livadeia, and its ...

, central

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders ...

. It sits on a cliff, located close to the modern

national road The National Road (also known as the Cumberland Road) was the first major improved highway in the United States built by the federal government. Built between 1811 and 1837, the road connected the Potomac and Ohio Rivers and was a main tran ...

from Thebes to

Livadeia Livadeia ( el, Λιβαδειά ''Livadiá'', ; grc, Λεβάδεια, Lebadeia or , ''Lebadia'') is a town in central Greece. It is the capital of the Boeotia regional district. Livadeia lies north-west of Athens, west of Chalkida, south-ea ...

, and on the southern shore of the ancient

Lake Copais Lake Copais, also spelled Kopais or Kopaida ( grc, Κωπαΐς; ell, Κωπαΐδα), was a lake in the centre of Boeotia, Greece, west of Thebes. It was drained in the late 19th century. It is now flat dry land and is still known as Kopaida. ...

. The tower is almost square, measuring by at its base, with a thickness of at its base. The tower is preserved at a height of . It is built of hewn stone, mostly undressed but relatively regular; only the quoins are dressed, including some ancient

spolia ''Spolia'' (Latin: 'spoils') is repurposed building stone for new construction or decorative sculpture reused in new monuments. It is the result of an ancient and widespread practice whereby stone that has been quarried, cut and used in a built ...

from the nearby acropolis of ancient Haliartos. The courses of stone diminish in size with rising height. The tower had four floors. On the ground floor is a chamber some on each side, covered by a semicircular arch. The two middle floors have each eight window slits, two on each wall, while the top floor was covered by a vault reinforced by a double arch, now collapsed. There is an opening at the base, but it is of modern creation; the original gate seems to have been located well above the ground, on the second floor level, on the tower's southern face; the existence of putlog holes suggest that a wooden staircase was affixed. A number of caves exist at the edge of the cliff on which the tower sits, but it is unknown whether they are medieval, and possibly related to the tower, or of more recent date, the result of lime-burning. It is variously regarded as part of a late Byzantine defence system along the Copais and the Boeotic Cephissus, but is most likely of

Frankish Frankish may refer to: * Franks, a Germanic tribe and their culture ** Frankish language or its modern descendants, Franconian languages * Francia, a post-Roman state in France and Germany * East Francia, the successor state to Francia in Germany ...

construction.

References

Sources

* * * {{coord, 38, 22, 04, N, 23, 07, 12, E, display=title

Duchy of Athens

Buildings and structures in Boeotia