The Tides

Item from Piranesi by Susanna Clarke

The sea that breathes through the House — tidal waters that flood the Lower Halls twice daily, bringing life and death in equal measure, as regular and indifferent as a heartbeat.

Also known as: The Sea, The Floods, The Waters

What They Know

• Regular tidal pattern: two floods per day, with larger spring tides at intervals — all documented in Piranesi's journals
• The spring tides are the primary danger in the House — they can flood halls that are normally dry, and several of the dead may have been caught in them
• The tides are the primary food source: fish, crabs, seaweed, and other marine life arrive with each flood
• The source of the water has never been found — the tides enter from halls so deep and distant that no one has mapped their origin

Connections

• floods — lower_halls
• studied_by — piranesi
• recorded_in — journal

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