Tower

For other uses, see Tower (disambiguation).

A tower is a high structure, usually man-made. The sea can erode the land and make a tower known as a sea-stack.

The air traffic control tower at Bristol Airport, Bristol, England

Purposes:

being impressive or beautiful
saving surface area
for the view
- for tourism
- for guiding: air 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
for increasing communications distances 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)
note: in some parts of the English-speaking world, skyscrapers are not thought of as towers; however in the UK, tall domestic buildings are referred to as tower blocks and in the USA the now-destroyed New York World Trade Center has the nickname the Twin Towers, a moniker it shares with the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur.

The Eiffel Tower

A tower wagon is a mobile tower for construction work, firefighting, rescue work, window cleaning, filming, etc.