The most famous watch in the world. Six of the capital's most famous clocks

Want to see the world's largest structures? Then go to the Arab states - there is more than enough of this goodness here. Suffice it to recall the Burj Dubai skyscraper, whose height is more than eight hundred meters. Saudi Arabia I decided to answer this with one more unique object- the largest clock in the world.

The device, which consists of four dials, each with a diameter of 46 meters, can be found in the city of Mecca. This locality is one of the main Muslim shrines and during holy month Ramadan, thousands of people come here. This religious holiday, in fact, became the formal occasion for the opening of the building.

The clock tower is located at the top of the hotel, whose height is 577 meters. The complex consists of seven towers, which in total offer potential guests more than two thousand rooms. One cannot fail to note the local courtyard, where thirty thousand believers can pray at the same time. Still, in Arab countries there is an obvious tendency towards gigantism.

Bottom edge unusual watches located at 380 meters from the foundation level. Don't understand how high this is? Then it's time to say that the lower edge of the clock mechanism of the famous Big Ben is located six times lower. Because of this, a lot of time was spent on the construction of the hotel and the clock, since it was necessary to first develop a unique plan, and then bring it to life with the participation of many contractors. However, the efforts of the specialists were not in vain - the object has already turned into a local attraction and will certainly have a positive impact on the number of tourists coming here. In addition, such records inspire many to look for a place where they can sell watches and buy new, even more expensive ones.

The clock in Mecca is equipped with a special light designed to flash five times a day (the number of prayers that Muslims are required to perform). But even without illumination, the structure is visible within a radius of 17 kilometers, because there is not a single building as tall in the city, in addition, the clock is comfortably located in the very center of the village.

Psychologists consider the sense of time to be subjective. They're probably right: there's time wristwatch and in mobile phones runs, time on the city towers moves in a different, measured rhythm, as if not today’s rhythm

Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Tower
New York, USA, 1909

The tower was built in the image and likeness of the Campanile of San Marco in Venice, but with a clock. Eight-meter dials are located on four sides at the 25th–27th floor level. The numbers are 1.2 m high. The minute hands weigh half a ton. The clock is mentioned in the story of the science fiction writer Murray Leinster “The Runaway Skyscraper”: when the building moved through time, the hands turned back.

Abraj Al-Bait Towers
Mecca, Saudi Arabia, 2012

The clock on the Royal Tower is the largest in the world (43 m in diameter) and the highest (400 m). Each of the four dials contains approximately 21,000 white and green lights that form the Saudi flag. By blinking, they call Muslims to prayer. The flag is visible 30 km away.

Kostel Nejsvětějšího srdce Páně
Prague, Czech Republic, 1932

Two huge transparent dials on the wide tower of the Church of the Sacred Heart also serve as windows. Light comes in through them.

Shell Mex House
London, UK, 1931

London's largest clock (7.62 m in diameter) for a long time were known as "Big Gasoline" because the monumental building on the banks of the Thames (80 Strand) belonged to an oil and gas company Shell.

Former Kowloon-Canton Railway Clock Tower
Hong Kong, 1921

The clock tower is all that remains of railway station. Now she is just a monument. And the clock is ticking. Their work was only interrupted during the Japanese occupation during World War II.

Gare de Cergy-Saint-Christophe
Cergy, France, 1985

Station RER Cergy Saint-Christophe is built of glass and metal in the form of a huge cylinder hanging over the pedestrian street. There is a transparent dial at both ends of the cylinder. Clock with a diameter of 10 m, created by the company Huchez, claim to be the largest in Europe. The length of the second hand is 6 m. Its tip “travels” more than 45 km per day.

Zimmer-toren
Lier, Belgium, 1930

The medieval Cornelius Tower, dating from the 13th century, was rebuilt in 1930 to house the Jubilee Clock ( Jubelklok). Watchmaker Louis Zimmer donated them to the city for the 100th anniversary of Belgian independence. The rebuilt tower was named after him. The watch has 13 dials. The central one shows time; the twelve surrounding it have special functions: displaying the day of the week, zodiac sign, month, phases of the moon, the change of day and night on earth and other periodic states.

Helsingin päärautatieasema
Helsinki, Finland, 1922

Originally, Grand Central Station clocks were wound manually. Until 1980, each dial had its own mechanism; later they were connected to electronic system hours of the Finnish Transport Agency.

Grazer Uhrturm
Graz, Austria, 1712

The clock on the tower on Mount Schlossberg is unusual in that the hour hand is longer than the minute hand. Initially there was only one long hand that struck the hour. Later a second, shorter one was added. Inside the tower is a clock bell dating from 1382.

Pałac kultury i nauki
Warsaw, Poland, 2000

The Palace of Culture and Science was erected in 1955 in the style of Stalin's high-rise buildings, with Soviet money and by Soviet builders according to the design of Lev Rudnev. There were no clocks on the skyscraper back then. The four facades at the top of the building were fitted with large clock faces in 2000 to celebrate the millennium. For two years after this, the tower remained the world's tallest building with a clock, until it was erected in Tokyo NTT Docomo Yoyogi Building.

Supreme Court of Burma
Yangon, Myanmar, 1911

Building Supreme Court Burma (now Myanmar) was built in the then fashionable Victorian style (or rather, in one of its directions called “Queen Anne style”).

Torre Dell'Orologio
Venice, Italy, 1499

The clock on the tower of the Cathedral of San Marco showed guests the wealth and glory of Venice. The golden hand indicates the hour, the disk with the signs of the zodiac indicates the position of the Sun. The left panel at the top displays the number of hours (in Roman numerals), the right panel displays the minutes (Arabic numerals).

Urania-Weltzeituhr
Berlin, Germany, 1969

The Berlin World Clock, installed on Alexanderplatz to mark the 20th anniversary of the founding of the GDR, shows the time in 24 time zones and 148 cities around the world, the names of which are stamped on the cylindrical dial. Today it is favorite place meetings. Berliners say that a couple who holds hands for 24 hours in this place will never part.

Puppet Theater named after Obraztsov
Moscow, Russia, 1970

Around the dial there are forged houses with toy animal inhabitants. At each change of hour, a rooster crows, the doors of the dwelling to which the arrow points open, and its owner looks out.

Kulla e Sahatit
Tirana, Albania, 1822–1970

The Tirana Clock Tower was originally equipped with a bell from Venice that chimed every hour. A German clock was installed in 1928, but it was damaged by bombing during World War II, and in 1946 it was replaced by a clock from a church in the Albanian city of Shkoder. And in 1970, a Chinese-made clock appeared on the tower. They are still going.

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Every city, even the most provincial and young, has its own small attraction. And in every city there is a clock that secretly counts down the history of its inhabitants. And although today people, due to their frantic pace of life, do not notice the clock, “MK-Boulevard” decided to stop and listen - after all, city chronometers can tell so much. The result was a short journey through time, and we started it, naturally, from London, where on May 31, 1859, the bell of the most famous watches in the world - Big Ben.

BIG BEN
Where: St. Stephen's Tower, Palace of Westminster, London, UK.
Year of creation: 1859.
Dimensions: The diameter of each of the dials, lined with 312 panels of frosted glass and located on four sides of the tower, is seven meters. The length of the hour hand, cast from metal, is 2 m 70 cm, and the minute hand, made of copper sheet, is 4 m 30 cm. The height of each number is only 61 centimeters.
Fact: There are two theories regarding the name of the watch. According to the first, Big Ben (Big Ben) was named after Sir Benjamin Hall, who supervised the casting of the bell. According to another version, the heaviest bell at that time - 13.7 tons - received its name in honor of Benjamin Count, an extremely popular heavyweight boxer at that time. The precision of Big Ben's five-ton mechanism is achieved using a coin weighing 1.5 grams: when the clock starts to fall behind, an old English penny is placed on the pendulum, which speeds up its movement by 2.5 seconds per day.

KREMLIN CHIMES
Where: Spasskaya Tower of the Kremlin, Moscow, Russia.
Year of creation: 1851.
Dimensions: The clock faces 4 sides of the tower, the diameter of each dial is 6 m 12 cm, the height of the numbers is 72 cm, the length of the hour hand is 2 m 97 cm, the length of the minute hand is 3 m 27 cm. The one and a half meter pendulum weighs 32 kg. 9 bells strike every quarter of an hour, and one bell every hour.
Fact: The name of the main clock of the country comes from French word courant - current, running. And for a long time in Rus' all tower or large room clocks with a musical mechanism were called chimes. The Kremlin chimes occupy the last two floors (8-
10th) Spasskaya Tower. Before the revolution, the clock at 12 o’clock played the melody “How Glorious is Our Lord in Zion”, and at 24 o’clock the “Preobrazhensky March”. On November 2, 1917, during an artillery shelling, the clock was hit by a shell, and it did not work for almost a whole year. During the renovation, they also decided to remake the musical mechanism, and from September 1918, the chimes began to play “The Internationale” at 12 o’clock, and “You have fallen a victim” at 24 o’clock. True, in 1935 they decided to get rid of music altogether and the corresponding mechanism was dismantled.

PUPPET THEATER CLOCK
Where: Facade of the Obraztsov Puppet Theater, Moscow, Russia.
Year of creation: 1970.
Dimensions: The clock together with the “windows” is about 4 meters high, about three meters wide.
Fact: Every hour on the facade of the theater a rooster crows and the melody “Whether in the garden or in the vegetable garden” sounds, and a fairy-tale animal (donkey, cat, owl, etc.) looks out of one of the twelve windows. Together, all animals appear only twice a day - at 12 noon and at midnight. Thanks to these watches, the concept of “hour of the wolf” appeared. In the store opposite the theater, as throughout the country, alcohol sales began strictly at 11.00. It was at this time that a wolf appeared on the clock from his window on the façade of the Puppet Theater.

ASTRONOMICAL CLOCK “ORLOY”
Where: Old Town Hall, Prague, Czech Republic.
Year of creation: 1410.
Dimensions: The diameter of each of the two dials is about 2.5 meters.
Fact: Translated from Czech “orloj” means tower clock. At the beginning of the 15th century, there was brisk trade on Old Town Square, and the city authorities decided to place a clock on the town hall so that the townspeople would not be late for mass. The erected clock not only reminded (which it still does) of time, but also made you think about your soul. Every hour, a skeleton symbolizing Death pulls the bell, the Miser jingles his coins, the Proud Man admires himself in the mirror, and the 12 apostles begin their procession. According to legend, the master Hanush, who repaired the clock in 1490, had his eyes gouged out so that he could not reproduce something similar.

MSU CLOCK
Where: Moscow State University building, Moscow, Russia.
Year of creation: 1953.
Dimensions: The dial diameter is 9 m, the length of the minute hand is 4 m 20 cm, it weighs 39 kg. The length of the hour hand is 3 m 70 cm, weight 50 kg.
Fact: Before the appearance of the flower clock on Poklonnaya Gora, this clock was considered one of the largest in Europe. Until 1957, they were launched using a pendulum mechanism the size of a six-story building. The factory of such a colossus required a huge staff of employees, and it was replaced with an electric motor.

MILLENNIUM CLOCK
Where: Palace of Culture and Science, Warsaw, Poland.
Year of creation: 2001.
Dimensions: The diameter of the clock located on the Warsaw high-rise is 6 m 30 cm.
Fact: The Warsaw Millennium Clock is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the tallest tower clock in the world. They are located on the 42nd floor of the palace, that is, at an altitude of 165 meters.

WORLD TIME CLOCK
Where: Alexanderplatz, Berlin, Germany.
Year of creation: 1969.
Dimensions: The height of the entire structure is 10 meters, and the clock itself - a rotating cylinder covered with aluminum plates and showing the time in the most important cities of the world - is 2 meters 70 centimeters.
Fact: The clock was built during the socialist reconstruction of Alexanderplatz, which at that time was located in the eastern part of Berlin. Therefore, in the 24 segments of the cylinder, first of all, the capitals of the socialist countries are written, from Beijing to Havana. The floor under the clock is paved with a mosaic depicting a compass rose. And above the cylinder rise metal rings with balls, symbolizing the orbits of the planets. True, many people associate them with the symbol of the atom.

FLOWER CLOCK
Where: Poklonnaya Gora, Moscow, Russia.
Year of creation: 2001.
Dimensions: Dial diameter 10 m, minute hand length 4.5 m, hour hand 3.5 m. Almost 8 thousand colors are required to create a watch.
Fact: The watch's running mechanism is completely hidden underground; only the axis on which the hands are mounted is brought to the surface. To help you navigate by the clock, it is specially illuminated from all sides at night. Unfortunately, the clock only works during the warm season - from May to October. But every year they look new. This season, until June, the dial will be decorated with pansies in yellow, blue and white flowers, and then they will be replaced by begonias in purple and pink tones.

FLOWER CLOCK
Where: English Garden, Geneva, Switzerland.
Year of creation: 1955.
Dimensions: The diameter of the Geneva flower clock is only five meters, but it has the largest second hand in the world - 2.5 meters. Every year appearance hours varies, but the number of colors - 6500 pieces - is always the same.
Fact: The Flower Clock was installed to honor the craftsmanship of Swiss watchmakers, which is why its fragrant dial was equipped with a seconds hand. In 2003, the mayor of Geneva donated a watch to St. Petersburg in honor of its 300th anniversary. However, the St. Petersburg analogue of the Geneva clocks began to lag behind and has already been vandalized: last winter, hooligans broke off the hands on the clock.

GREENWICH CLOCK
Where: Royal Observatory Greenwich, London, UK.
Year of creation: 1852.
Size: The diameter of the watch, made of metal and glass, is only 92 centimeters.
Fact: The Greenwich 24-hour clock, also known as the Master Electric Clock, Shepherd's Clock (named after its creator Charles Shepherd) and the Royal Observatory Clock, was the first clock to visually display time throughout the world. They are located at the gates of the observatory.

A tower with one or several clocks is a familiar landmark in almost all cities of the world. Usually in the 18th century they were erected in the central square so that people could easily tell the time, since at that time there were no personal clocks. Today they have become tourist attractions and the pride of many cities. We offer an overview of the most amazing and interesting towers that you should definitely visit during excursions.

The Tower of the Winds is located in the Greek city of Athens. This is an octagonal building with a clock, built from Pentelic marble. This is the earliest tower, believed to have been built in 50 BC. Andronicus of Cyrrhus. According to other sources, it was built in the 2nd century BC. The 12-meter tower contains 12 sundial, as well as a water clock. A weather vane is installed on the tower.

The Town Hall Tower is built on Marienplatz square in Munich and is the city's main tourist attraction. It was built as part of the city government complex in 1908. There are 32 life-size figures depicting scenes from the 16th century, they appear at 11, 12 and 5 o'clock in the summer. In addition, the clock has a cockerel that crows three times.

The astronomical clock in Prague, called the Prague Oracle, was installed on the south wall of the city hall in 1410. This is the oldest astronomical clock in the world that is still functioning. They show the position of the Sun and Moon, the calendar, and every hour they show figures of the apostles.

City Hall in Minneapolis, Minnesota, is the main city government building for the city and county. This is the largest tower with four clocks, the diameter of which is 7.5 m. The clock regularly strikes 15 bells. In 1920, the tower, whose height is 105 m, was recognized as the tallest building in the city.

The NTT Docomo Yoyogi Building is located in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan. On the 240 m high tower there is a clock with a diameter of 15 m. This is the highest clock tower in the world. Illumination is installed on its upper part so that it and the watch can be seen in bad weather.

The Zytglogge is a tower located in Bern, Switzerland, which is a major medieval monument, having been built in the 13th century. It was a prison, a watchtower, a war memorial and the center of city life. Over the years, the tower has gone through several reconstructions, but they did not affect its astronomical clock, the symbol of Bern. Today it is listed as a UNESCO heritage site.

The Allen-Bradley Tower is located on the skyscraper headquarters of Rockwell Automation in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the tower with the largest non-chime clock with four dials. The height of the clock is 86.26 m.

Memorial Tower Joseph Chamberlain is located on the grounds of the University of Birmingham in the suburb of Edgbaston. Commonly called "Old Man Joe", its height is 110 m. It is the tallest free-standing tower in the world.

The Elizabeth Tower is located in London in the northern part of the Palace of Westminster. Despite official name, all over the world it is called Big Ben, in honor of the architect and big clock. Its height is 96 m, and it is the second tallest chiming tower. In addition, it is a symbol of London and a very popular attraction, which is depicted in films and paintings.

The Abraj al-Bayt Tower is located in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, a few meters from the Al-Haram Mosque, the largest mosque in the world. It's a whole complex tall buildings, owned by the government and part of the King Abdulazis Project. Its height is 601 m, so it is the tallest tower in the world, on which there is a clock with the world's largest dial.

There are many more wonderful clock towers in the world. For example, in Moscow (Spasskaya Tower), which has the largest digital clock in the world. Towers like these are landmarks and business cards cities of the world.
However, some modern designers are ready to find completely different uses for the towers, for example, converting them into

The most famous leaning tower in the world is, of course, the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Thanks to a mistake by the builders, this elegant but quite ordinary bell tower of the Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta has gained worldwide fame. However, not everyone knows that the Leaning Tower of Pisa is far from a unique phenomenon in architecture. In Europe alone there are several dozen so-called “leaning” towers, and there are more than a hundred of them around the world.

Most often, towers begin to deviate from the vertical axis due to too soft soil, which settles unevenly under the weight of the structure. The second reason, often directly related to the first, is the human factor, in particular miscalculations made during the design or already during the construction process.
Due to the characteristics of the soil, Italy, Germany and the Netherlands are confidently in the lead in the number of falling towers in the Old World, but similar sights are found in other European countries. The most interesting leaning towers of the Old Lady of Europe will be discussed in this article.

ITALY

Venetian towers

In Italy, quite a lot has been preserved a large number of leaning towers, especially many of them in Venice. Today, guests of this beautiful city have the opportunity to see as many as four towers, which have a serious deviation from the vertical, although 120 years ago there were five.

, or the bell tower of the Cathedral of San Marco, was built in the 12th century and had a height of 99 m. For several centuries it served as a beacon for sailors, and its five bells informed the townspeople of the exact time and announced the start of public executions.
In the 18th century, during a thunderstorm, the tower was struck by lightning and a threatening crack formed on the façade. Campanilla squinted slightly, but stood firm. Due to the constant threat of its collapse, the Venetian authorities were even forced to issue a decree banning noisy festive celebrations in St. Mark's Square. Taken measures did not help and in 1902 the tower suddenly collapsed. Surprisingly, the collapse of such a massive structure resulted in no casualties; moreover, even nearby buildings were not damaged. After 10 years, the tower was restored and now stands level. Today it is considered one of the main attractions of Venice, and anyone can climb it observation deck to admire the magnificent city from a bird's eye view.

A similar story happened with Bell tower of the Cathedral of Santo Stefano. In 1585, the 66-meter tower was also struck by lightning, destroying its upper section. True, there was some damage here; falling debris seriously damaged neighboring buildings, and the bells melted from the high temperature. The tower was repaired over the next two centuries, but as a result of the incompetence of the builders, even during the restoration process, it began to sag and tilt. At the beginning of the twentieth century, measures were taken to strengthen its foundation. They did not bring tangible results, and the tower is still considered a dangerous object.

The rest of the falling towers of Venice escaped destruction, although some of them only miraculously. So, tower of the Church of St. Martino on the Venetian island of Burano would have long ago shared the fate of Campanilla, but she was prevented by the wall of a nearby building, on which she still relies.

Another dangerously lopsided building in Venice is considered Tower of the Basilica of San Pietro di Castello, which has received a significant deviation from the vertical axis as a result of frequent floods.

And finally, the last leaning tower of Venice belongs to a small Orthodox church Church of San Giorgio dei Grechi. Unlike the others, it stands quite firmly on its foundation, is not considered dangerous for tourists, and even serves as a reliable guide for those who are lost in the maze of narrow Venetian streets and canals.

Swinging towers in Bologna

The fashion for building tall towers originated in Italy during the Middle Ages; this allowed noble families to have impressive and also well-fortified housing. The residents of Bologna were especially fond of such construction, XIII century there were more than a hundred towers in the city.
Two of them, located in the very heart of the city, have earned themselves worldwide fame not because of its beauty and grace, but again because of a banal mistake by the builders. Both of them have a significant deviation from the vertical axis, clearly visible to the naked eye. The 97-meter Asinelli Tower is tilted by 1.2 m, and its younger sister, the 48-meter Garisenda, has an even greater slope of 3 meters.
After these structures were no longer considered residential, a prison operated in the Asinelli Tower for several centuries, and in the 18th century the scientist Giovanni Guglielmo studied the properties of gravity here. In the twentieth century, the tower was used as an observation tower and even as TV antenna. Today these two towers are considered the symbol of Bologna, and, according to experts, they are not in danger of sudden destruction.

GERMANY

The Guinness record for the largest deviation from the axis (5.19 degrees at a height of 24.7 m) belongs to the bell tower of the church in the town of Zuurhusen, which is located near the city of Emden in Germany. The church itself was built in the 13th century, and the bell tower was added to it only two and a half centuries later. The tower was built on a wooden foundation and, of course, over time the wood began to deteriorate and the tower to lean. In 1975, the entrance to the bell tower was closed due to real threat its collapse, then urgent measures began to be taken to strengthen the foundation. The building has been stabilized, but the church is now collecting donations for further repairs.

Church in Bad Frankenhausen-Kyffhäuser

The Late Gothic Upper Church in the German town of Bad Frankenhausen-Kyffhäuser is now in a state of desolation. But a beautiful spire still continues to rise above the roofs of the houses, with a deviation from the vertical axis of 4.45 m, which is more than that of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Let's hope that the church will be restored over time, and its leaning tower will not be allowed to fall completely. The townspeople are already raising funds for large-scale restoration work, especially since there is a healing mineral spring under the church.

Metzgerturm tower in Ulm

It is also called the “leaning tower of Ulm”. Previously, the tower was part of the city’s fortress wall and served as a gatehouse. It was built of brick in 1345. With a height of 36 m, the angle of deviation of the tower from the axis is about two meters. The tilt angle is now 3.3 degrees.
There is an interesting urban legend about the reason for the tilt of the tower. Once there was a bad harvest year in Ulm, and in order not to suffer losses, local butchers began to add sawdust to their products. The price for low-quality meat products remained the same as in previous times. Having found out about this, the townspeople started a riot, and the frightened butchers locked themselves in the gate tower from the enraged townspeople. Then the residents of Ulm turned to the burgomaster with a demand to severely punish the scammers. And so, at the moment when the judicial representative entered the tower to announce the verdict to the butchers, the obese businessmen huddled in fear in one of the corners of the tower. The strong structure could not withstand the weight of the well-fed burghers and tilted. Since then, this tower has been called the “butchers’ tower.”

NETHERLANDS

The marshy soil of the Netherlands has always represented big problem for builders, and not all of them managed to cope with their task with honor.

In the 16th century, residents of the small Dutch town of Leewarden decided to build a large church with high tower, which would dwarf the bell tower of St. Martin's Church in the neighboring city of Groningen. However, the ambitious plans of the provincials were not destined to come true. From the very beginning of the construction of the new church, something went wrong and the building began to tilt dangerously. The work was frozen, and soon, due to the threat of collapse, the almost rebuilt cathedral was dismantled, leaving only its leaning tower for the edification of descendants. A clock and two bells remain on the tower; today it is considered the main attraction of Leerwarden.

Old church in Delft

Beautiful clock tower Old Church in the Dutch city of Delft it deviates from the vertical axis by almost 3 meters. They say that the stonework could not withstand the weight of the huge bell and still continues to tilt under its weight.
The cathedral itself is considered one of the main attractions of the city. The famous Dutch artist Jan Vermeer and the natural scientist Leeuwenhoek are buried there.

Another similar attraction is located in the town of Bedum. The tower of St. Walfrid's Church leans more than 2.5 meters from the vertical. If this tower were equal in height to the Pisa tower, then its deviation would be 6 cm, which is two centimeters more than that of the famous Italian.

UK AND IRELAND

Finally, another region of Europe where leaning towers are found in abundance is the British Isles.

Church of Our Lady and All Saints, Chesterfield

The Church of Our Lady of Chesterfield boasts one of the most unusual spiers in the history of world architecture. However, its unusual shape cannot serve as evidence of the genius of the creator; rather, on the contrary, it is a clear illustration of his unprofessionalism. The temple was erected at a time when Europe was just reviving after a terrible plague epidemic. At the construction site there was a shortage of not only specialists, but even ordinary workers. As a result of incorrect calculations and the use of poor wood, the spire frame could not withstand the weight of the roof and was significantly deformed. Now it is not only deviated from the vertical by 3 meters, but also twisted in a spiral by 45 degrees.

Caerphilly Castle in Wales

The ancient Caerphilly Castle was built in the second half of the 13th century. and was built, indeed, for centuries. Over its long history, it has experienced many wars and sieges. But the most tragic thing for the castle was the siege during Civil War XVII century. Cromwell ordered not only to capture the castle, but to completely wipe it off the face of the earth. The besiegers decided to commit sabotage, and explosives were placed under the walls of the ancient castle. The explosion that occurred was terrible, but its only result was a serious tilt of one of the towers of the fortress. For several centuries now, its slope has been 3 m with a total height of 20 m - a terrifying degree. But the tower is still standing, and the fact that it has not yet collapsed once again testifies to the highest skill of the castle builders, who managed to build a truly strong and impregnable structure.

The exact purpose of hundreds of strange round towers in Ireland remains unknown. They were erected in the 11th-13th centuries, most often near religious buildings - churches or monasteries. The tallest of them is the 34-meter tower of Kilmacdoo Monastery in County Galway. This tower stands out among others not only in its height, but also in its very noticeable deviation from the vertical axis. Despite its tilt, the tower looks as if it was built just yesterday. It looks especially impressive against the backdrop of the monastery itself, which has been in ruins for many centuries. According to experts, the tower is not in danger of further collapse.

Surprisingly, the well-known Big Ben can also be classified as a leaning tower. Its deviation from the vertical axis is about 0.3 degrees or 43 cm. At first glance, it is insignificant, but the concern is that the inclination is gradually increasing. Active underground work and the activities of the London Underground are named as the alleged culprits of this circumstance. It is known that the roll occurred quite recently, between November 2002 and August 2003. True, until the time when the slope main tower It will take many years for England to become visible to the naked eye. According to experts, this can happen only in 4 thousand years.