Al-Jazari's elephant clock put a whole world into one machine: Greek waterworks, an Indian elephant, Chinese dragons, an Egyptian phoenix and the driver's Islamic turban.

1206

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The event

• Al-Jazari and the elephant clock1206 · Diyarbakır. Al-Jazari, engineer to the Artuqid court, wrote a book on some fifty devices, from water pumps to automaton musicians. The most famous is a water clock shaped like an elephant whose mechanical driver struck a drum every half hour.

13th century

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