Leaning Tower of Pisa
The Leaning Tower of Pisa is a building in Pisa, Italy. It is a bell tower. It is famous for its nearly four-degree lean. In 1990 the tower was leaning at 5.5 degrees and increasing. After that, much restoration work has been done to stop it from falling over completely. There was scaffolding all around the tower for 20 years. On 26 April 2011, the last bit of scaffolding was removed so that the tower can be seen properly again.[1]
Leaning Tower of Pisa | |
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Basic information | |
Location | Italy |
Geographic coordinates | 43°43′24″N 10°23′39″E / 43.72333°N 10.39417°ECoordinates: 43°43′24″N 10°23′39″E / 43.72333°N 10.39417°E |
Affiliation | Roman Catholic |
Province | Pisa |
District | Tuscany |
Ecclesiastical or organizational status | open |
Website | http://www.opapisa.it/en/home-page.html |
The height of the tower is about 56 metres from the ground. Its weight is about 14,500 tons. The tower has 294 steps.
The tower construction began in 1173.[2] When the second floor was built in 1178, the tower started to lean. This was because it had a small three-meter foundation in soft soil. The design of this tower was bad from the beginning. Construction was stopped for almost 100 years because the people of Pisa were often at war with Genoa, Lucca, and Florence.
There is an old story that Galileo Galilei used the Tower for a physics experiment.
Earthquake survival
The Leaning Tower of Pisa has survived four earthquakes since 1280. That is why in the 1990s the tower was closed to the public
Photos of the tower
Leaning Tower Of Pisa Media
Panoramic view (from left to right) of the Campanile (Leaning Tower of Pisa), the Pisa Cathedral, and the Pisa Baptistry in the Piazza dei Miracoli
An elevation image of the Leaning Tower of Pisa cut with laser scan data from a University of Ferrara/CyArk research partnership, with source image accurate down to Lua error in Module:Convert at line 1850: attempt to index local 'en_value' (a nil value)..
Related pages
References
- ↑ "Standing corrected" in The Independent, 27 April 2011 p.31
- ↑ "Architecture of Leaning Tower of Pisa". Retrieved 2023-08-22.