Editing Polycrates (section)

===Construction projects===
[[File:GR_Samos_Heraion_05_asb_16-08-2002.jpg|left|thumb|334x334px|Heraion, Samos]]
Under Polycrates the Samians developed an engineering and technological expertise to a level unusual in ancient Greece.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=The rise of the Greeks|last=Grant|first=Michael|publisher=Scribners|edition=1st American|location=New York|pages=153–156}}</ref> In the midst of his account of Polycrates, Herodotus presents three astounding engineering works of the Samians. The first of these is an aqueduct in the form of a tunnel {{convert|1036|m|ft}} long which can still be seen and which is known as the [[Tunnel of Eupalinos]]. The tunnel was constructed by two teams tunnelling from opposite sides of a ridge who met in the middle with an error of only a few metres — a remarkable engineering feat for the time, and one which probably reflects the practical geometry skills which the Samians had learned from the Egyptians. Polycrates also sponsored construction of a large temple of [[Hera]], the [[Heraion of Samos|Heraion]], to which Amasis dedicated many gifts, and which at {{convert|346|ft|m}} long was one of the three largest temples in the Greek world, and he upgraded the [[Ancient harbour of Samos|harbour]] of his capital city (modern [[Pythagoreion|Pythagorion]]), ordering the construction of a deep-water mole nearly a quarter mile long, which is still used to shelter Greek fishing boats today.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|title=The lyric age of Greece|last=Burn|first=A. R.|publisher=Minerva|year=1968|location=St. Martin's Press|pages=314–318}}</ref> Although these projects are often associated with Polycrates on the strength of the passage of Herodotus, he is actually very vague about when these projects were carried out and what - if anything - they had to do with Polycrates.<ref>Carty (2015) 15</ref> Archaeological work has made the picture more complicated, suggesting that the Tunnel of Eupalinos may have been dug before his reign and that Polycrates continued projects that were already in course at the Heraion.