The Tower of Pisa is located in Pisa, Italy. Although it was designed to be perfectly vertical, it started to lean during construction, thus the word 'leaning' gave it a unique name. The Tower stands at 60 metres and until 1990 was leaning at about a 10 degree angle. This look-alike "massive wedding cake knocked by a clumsy giant" is simply a bell tower, or campanile, which is one of the four buildings that make up the cathedral complex called Campo dei Miracoli or Piazza dei Miracoli, which means "Field of Miracles".
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| the Tower leans, compared to the building to its left |
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| the bell-chamber |
The construction of this imposing mass was started in the year 1174 by Bonanno Pisano. When the tower had reached its third storey the works ceased because it had started sinking into the ground. The seventh floor was completed in 1319 by Tommaso di Andrea Pisano. The bell- chamber was finally added in 1372, which accomodates 7 bells, one for each note of the major musical scale. The tower now stands eight storeys high.
The top of the Leaning Tower can be reached by mounting the 294 steps which rise in the form of a spiral on the inner side of the tower walls.
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| 7th floor staircase |
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| stairs on 6th floor to 7th floor |
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| the top part |
Did you know that...?
even today the great mass continues to sink very slowly, about 1 mm.every year!
Since nobody can state with mathematical security that this sinking will continue in the future at the present yearly rate, without its ceasing, remedies by means of adequate measures, based on scientific studies and projects, are under consideration. In the meantime supervision with instruments of very high precision is continuously being carried out.
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