An ancient Greek tower (section and floor plan) of the walls of the Ionian city Tyras at the SW shore of the Dnestrovs’kyy Lyman
[Maps]

An ancient Greek tower (section and floor plan) of the walls of the Ionian city Tyras at the SW shore of the Dnestrovs’kyy Lyman

The round tower (section and ground plan) belonging to the Classical or Early Hellenistic enceinte of Tyras is the most impressive part of the walls in the area that has been excavated at Asprokastro-Akkerman (south of the modern port-city of Bilhorod-Dnistrovs'kyy).

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The tower is built on a high cliff and preserved to a height of 5.60 m. (diam. 10.75 m., thickness of wall 1.65-2 m.).

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The three-tiered interior and careful construction call to mind contemporary towers reinforcing the walls of Assos in the Troad Peninsula in Asia Minor.

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The extension of the walls of Tyras is dated to between 360 and 320 BC, when the Macedonians controlled Thracian territory as far as the Danube. One view is that Tyras was fortified in order to preserve its independence either at the time of Philip II or Alexander, or when the cities of the West Euxine, headed by Kallatis, rose up against King Lysimachos. Another view is that the walls were part of a wider programme of defensive works under Lysimachos, for the whole Danube-Prut-Dniester region.