Qualla: Tower of Aliartos https://qualla.com/tower-of-aliartos en-us © 2026 Bendyline Thu, 23 Jul 2026 20:34:07 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/s/w/b/6/tower-of-aliartos-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Tower of Aliartos https://qualla.com/tower-of-aliartos Tower of Aliartos: Introduction https://qualla.com/tower-of-aliartos/ Photo credit Schuppi, CC BY-SA 4.0. There is a cliff south of the road between Thebes and Livadeia where the ground drops away sharply and the view opens across what was, for most of recorded history, a shimmering inland sea. Lake Copais is gone now — drained in the nineteenth century into productive farmland — but the cliff remains, and on it stands a medieval tower that has watched over this crossing point for perhaps seven or eight centuries. The Tower of Aliartos, also known as the Tower of Moulki, is not large. At roughly eight metres square and fifteen metres tall, it would fit inside many a modern building. But it is almost complete, it is built with evident care, and its position on that cliff edge above the vanished lake gives it a presence out of proportion to its size.

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Image: Schuppi | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sun, 14 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/w/b/6/tower-of-aliartos-wp/swb6-tower-of-aliartos-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Tower of Aliartos: Stone on Stone https://qualla.com/tower-of-aliartos/ Photo credit Nefasdicere at en.wikipedia, CC BY 2.5. The tower was built from hewn stone, mostly undressed but laid in reasonably regular courses. At the corners — the structurally critical quoins — the builders used dressed stone, and among those corner blocks are pieces of spolia: architectural fragments taken from the acropolis ...

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Image: Nefasdicere at en.wikipedia | CC BY 2.5

]]> Sun, 14 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/w/b/6/tower-of-aliartos-wp/swb6-tower-of-aliartos-stone-on-stone.mp3 0:06 2 full Tower of Aliartos: How You Got Inside https://qualla.com/tower-of-aliartos/ Photo credit AlMare, CC BY-SA 3.0. The tower's original entrance was not at ground level. The opening you see at the base today is a modern addition. The real gate was on the second floor, on the southern face of the building — a defensible position that would have required a removable wooden staircase or ladder t...

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Image: AlMare | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sun, 14 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/w/b/6/tower-of-aliartos-wp/swb6-tower-of-aliartos-how-you-got-inside.mp3 0:06 3 full Tower of Aliartos: Frankish Boeotia https://qualla.com/tower-of-aliartos/ Photo credit Schuppi, CC BY-SA 4.0. Who built the tower, and exactly when, is not certain. It has sometimes been described as part of a late Byzantine defensive system along the Boeotic Cephissus river and Lake Copais. But the consensus among scholars leans toward a different origin: the tower is most likely of Fra...

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Image: Schuppi | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sun, 14 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/w/b/6/tower-of-aliartos-wp/swb6-tower-of-aliartos-frankish-boeotia.mp3 0:06 4 full Tower of Aliartos: Cliff, Caves, and the Vanished Lake https://qualla.com/tower-of-aliartos/ Photo credit Schuppi, CC BY-SA 4.0. At the base of the cliff below the tower, a number of caves open in the rock face. Their origins are uncertain — they may be medieval, possibly connected to the tower's use, or they may be more recent, the product of lime-burning operations that hollowed out the soft limestone. T...

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Image: Schuppi | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sun, 14 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/w/b/6/tower-of-aliartos-wp/swb6-tower-of-aliartos-cliff-caves-and-the-vanished-lake.mp3 0:06 5 full