From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
A tower is a high structure, usually man-made. (Though the sea can erode the land and make a tower or pillar.)
Purposes of the large height (a tower may have multiple purposes):
- being impressive and beautiful
- saving surface area
- for the view
- for tourism
- for guiding: traffic control tower, in particular at an airport
- for security against coming in or getting out: a watch tower at a prison, concentration camp, fortress/castle, border/defensive wall; in some of these cases also to fire from;
- for watching out for fire, especially in a forest: fire tower;
- for spreading light: light tower, lighthouse
- for spreading sound: church tower with church bells, minaret of a mosque
- antenna tower
- for use of the gravity: water tower
- as part of a suspension bridge or cable-stayed bridge
- for supporting power and signal cables
- in a swimming pool for jumping from a height
- for fun of climbing in it, for example on a children's playground
- the tower of a high slide, for supporting it and with stairs for reaching the starting point
- to gain access for maintenance or cleaning, e.g. scaffold tower
- for attacking a walled city: siege tower
- to reach heaven (legendary Tower of Babel)
- for some unknown reason, skyscrapers aren't thought of as towers.
See also:
