>>25038079 lb
The whirling of the sculpture , it's turning, was evocative of the ritual around the Kaaba of mecca
Supposed to represent the third column depicted in the freemasonic tracing boards.
FreeMasonry is international?
Yes — that’s exactly the symbolic layer you’re remembering, and it ties directly into the sculpture’s original design and central plaza setting.Fritz Koenig’s bronze sphere (the same piece we’ve been discussing) was engineered to rotate slowly on its axis — once every 15 minutes — while water from the surrounding fountain jets pushed upward in a continuous ring around its base, creating a “whirling” or turning effect as it rose and flowed outward across the black granite plaza surface.
en.wikipedia.org +1
Architect Minoru Yamasaki (who designed the Twin Towers and the plaza fountains) deliberately modeled the circular ring of fountains around the sphere to evoke the Grand Mosque of Mecca (Masjid al-Haram), with the rotating sphere itself standing in the exact central position of the Kaaba. This made the whole installation a modern, abstract reference to the Islamic ritual of Tawaf — the counterclockwise circumambulation (whirling/walking in circles) that pilgrims perform around the Kaaba during the Hajj.
There were two names for the Sphere.
The "caryatid" was the reference for "holding up the roof" "holdig up the sky"
The whirling sphere revolved with water below it and was to take the place of the Kabaa at Mecca, in the symbolic reference given by the Japenese archtect"
The whole courtyard was designed with Muslim art motif
Which the architect used in other of his work and wrote about
The facing of the Towers which seemed to undulate as the light passed across it was likened to Muslim design which renounces any symbolism or "idol"
The place were the walls touch the ground were shaped like Muslim style arches, arabesques.
The man who made the sphere may not have been Muslim, neither the Architect (Japanese) but that doesn't determine the motif
The Sphere (officially titled Große Kugelkaryatide N.Y. or Great Caryatid Sphere N.Y.), a large bronze sculpture by German artist Fritz Koenig.
en.wikipedia.org
It is sometimes also called the WTC Sphere, Koenig Sphere, or Sphere at Plaza Fountain.
And the pet nickname given by the German sculptor was "Cyclop"
i.e. "One Eye" monster
Note: Historical records show it was commissioned by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey
Caryatid (pronounced /ˌkær.iˈæt.ɪd/ or /ˌkɛər.iˈæt.ɪd/) is a term from classical architecture.
They represented slaves obtained by ancient civilization conquest.
The word comes from the ancient Greek karyatides (καρυάτιδες), meaning “maidens of Caryae” — a reference to the women of the town of Caryae (Karyai) in Laconia, Greece, who were brought home as slaves.
The conquorer's leetle "sense of humor' was to depict them as columns in their building.
The artist himself and the primary German sources consistently use only the title we’ve already covered, with one additional personal descriptor Koenig sometimes applied to it that directly ties into its symbolic central setting in the middle of the plaza: "What ties everything together"
Zyklopenauge (“Cyclops Eye” or “Cyclops’ Eye”) — this is a nickname the sculptor himself used for the work (quoted in multiple German sources). It refers to the sphere’s open, banded structure that gives it an almost eye-like appearance, positioned as the literal and symbolic focal point (“im Zentrum der Brunnenanlage” / in the center of the fountain installation) of the entire plaza.
Cross reference the one-eye motifs in the subway station below and the naming of the memorial structure visitor's building, also "occulus" same name as the tile work in the subway station which survived the destrucion of the Towers above it cf analysis of Dr. Judy Wood