Leaning Tower of Pisa, Bell tower in Pisa, Italy
The Leaning Tower of Pisa is the freestanding bell tower of Pisa Cathedral, built of white marble in eight levels: a solid base with blind arcades and diamond panels, six open arcades of slender columns with carved capitals, and a narrower belfry. It stands 55.86 m on the low side and 56.67 m on the high side, leaning about four degrees.
The foundations were laid on 9 August 1173, and the ground floor of white marble began five days later. After the tower sank at the second floor in 1178, work halted for nearly a century; it resumed in 1272 under Giovanni di Simone, who built upper floors taller on one side to counter the lean. Tommaso di Andrea Pisano added the bell chamber in 1372.
The tower is the campanile of Pisa Cathedral, and its bell chamber holds seven bells, one for each note of the musical major scale; the largest was installed in 1655. The name "Leaning Tower" comes from its tilt, which visitors now see as the structure's defining feature.
Reaching the top requires climbing 294 steps, with timed entry every 30 minutes to control visitor numbers. Advance booking is recommended, and the ascent takes roughly 30 minutes, while those with limited mobility can explore the ground floor but cannot complete the climb.
Between 1990 and 2001, engineers removed 38 cubic meters of soil from beneath the elevated north side through careful drilling to stabilize the tilt. This intervention reduced the lean by 18 inches (45 centimeters) and stabilized the monument for an estimated 300 years, after it had been worsening by roughly one millimeter annually.
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