When something captures the imagination of the world, it is remembered by people far more than things that may be more important. Everybody knows that in the city of Pisa in Italy, there is a tower that "leans’’. Very few people know that this town has a great and glorious history.

      Of course, the tower itself is quite a marvel, too. It is built entirely of white marble. The walls are 13 feet thick at its base. It has eight storey’s is 179 feet high, which in our country would be about the height of a 15- storey building.

            There is a stairway built into the walls consisting of 300 steps, which leads to the top. And by the way, those people who climb these stairs to the top get a magnificent view of the city and of the sea, which is six miles away.

   At the top, the tower is 16 and half feet out of the perpendicular. In other Words, it "leans" over by 16 and half feet. If you were to stand at the top and drop a stone to the ground, it would hit 16 feet away from the wall at the bottom of the tower!

       What makes it lean? Nobody really knows the answer. Of course, it wasn’t  supposed to lean when it was built; it was supposed to stand straight.

It was intended as a bell-tower for the cathedral which is nearby and was begun in 1174 and finished in 1350.

The foundations of the tower were laid in sand, and this may explain why it leans. But it didn't suddenly begin to lean, this began to happen when only three of its storeys, or "galleries," had been built. So the plans were changed slightly and construction went right on! In the last hundred years, the tower has leaned another foot. According to some engineers, it should be called "the falling tower," because they believe that it will eventually topple over.

Did you know that Galileo, who was born in Pisa, is said to have performed some of his experiments concerning the speed of falling bodies at this tower?