Animation showing how the Elephant Clock worked

How Al-Jazari's Elephant Clock worked

Short film about Al-Jazari's 13th Century Elephant Clock with animation showing how it worked:

1. The elephant’s body conceals a water tank containing a bowl with a hole in the bottom.

2. As the bowl slowly sinks, it pulls ropes that move the scribe and his pen to indicate the number of minutes past the hour.

3. Every half hour, the full water bowl triggers a ball to fall from the castle at the top of the clock, accompanied by sound and movement from the phoenix there.

4. The ball hits a fan, rotating the silver and black dial to show the number of hours since sunrise.

5. The Sultan moves his arms to reveal a falcon, and the ball rolls out of its beak.

6. The Chinese dragon catches the ball and it descends, rotating on a pivot and drawing the water bowl back up.

7. Finally, the ball drops into a vase that triggers the elephant driver’s mallet, which hits a cymbal and also triggers the vessel to tilt and start the whole cycle again.