Tower is an architectural structure whose height is much greater than its width or its thickness. Towers are generally taller than their surrounding structures. They may stand alone or be attached to walls or buildings. The first towers were for military or religious purposes, but over the centuries towers have assumed other uses. Towering buildings called skyscrapers are designed mainly to be occupied by people, but other towers are mostly uninhabitable.
Towers were rare in ancient times. One of the most famous early towers was the Lighthouse of Alexandria, Egypt, built during the reign of Ptolemy II (283-246 B.C.). During the Middle Ages in Europe, people erected masonry towers along the walls of castles and cities for military defense. The Tower of London is a prominent example of this type of structure. In the late Middle Ages, many European cities built tall slender bell towers on their city halls. They also served as watchtowers.
Towers are important in religious architecture. People who worshiped the sun and stars built towers so that their priests could be closer to the heavens. Buddhists build towers called pagodas. A crier calls Muslims to prayer from a tower called a minaret. In the 500’s, Christians began to build free-standing bell towers beside their churches. These are called campaniles, from the Italian word for bell. After about 1000, Christians built towers attached to the church itself.
Today, many towns use water towers to create pressure needed to pipe water to homes and businesses. Broadcasting towers support radio or TV antennas. The world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa (Khalifa Tower) in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, is a 2,716-foot (828-meter) skyscraper. Some oil-production platforms stand upon still taller towers. However, the largest portion of such towers is underwater, and so the towers are supported in part by buoyancy.
