Polygonal wall of Delphi

The Polygonal Wall of Delphi was built to hold up the terrace of the Temple of Apollo, its precisely cut, interlocking stone blocks fitted so tightly that mortar was never needed. The technique is typical of the sixth century BC, and the wall still rises up to four metres in places. Across its surface survive more than 800 ancient inscriptions, most of them manumission records from the second century BC onward, in which enslaved people had their freedom formally witnessed. It is a partial but eloquent monument, where engineering and human lives are carved into the same stone.