Pisa Tower.

Even if the tower in the city of Pisa, Italy, didn’t ‘lean’, it would quite be a marvel. It is built entirely of white marble. The walls are 13 feet thick at its base. It has 8 stories and 179 feet high, which normally would be about the height of a 15 story building. There is a stairway built into the walls consisting of 300 steps, which leads to the top. And by the way, those who climb to the top get a magnificent view of the city and the sea, which is 6 miles away. At the top, the tower is 16.5 feet out of the perpendicular. I.e. if you were to get to the top of the tower and throw a stone down on the ground, it would fall 16.5 feet away from the wall at the bottom of the tower. No one really knows why the tower is actually leaning. Of course it was meant to be straight while being built. It was begun to be built in 1174 and finished in 1350. The foundations of the tower were laid in sand and this may be a reason why it leans. Bit it didn’t suddenly began to lean until 3 of its stories had been built. But still the construction went on after change of plans slightly. In the last 100 years, the tower ahs leaned another foot. Some engineers say that it should be called the ‘falling tower’ because they believe it will eventually topple over.