The Leaning Tower of Pisa

Friday, 27th January 2006 by

The Leaning Tower of Pisa is a bell tower in the Italian city of Pisa. Originally meant to be vertical the first stone was laid on August 9, 1173 but by 1178 it was pretty obvious that the tower has some stability issues.

In Superman III the evil Superman had no problems straitening out the lean but in reality the tower had to be closed for a decade and local houses evacuated while the world's engineers made the building stable for at least another 300 years.

To the west of the tower is the cathedral and then the round building is the baptistry. The white square to the north is a walled off cemetery.

Thanks: Scott Ventura, Simone, eRez, Gianni