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Leaning Towers

We all know about the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Dating back to 1173 and even intially meant to be a perfectly vertical structure, the tower is today a curious attraction due to its high leaning at about 4 degrees. How this happened? As Wikipedia says: “The tower began to sink after construction had progressed to the third floor in 1178. This was due to a mere three-meter foundation, set in weak, unstable subsoil, a design that was flawed from the beginning.”

The well known Italian tower, although one controversial building, as you’ll see, it’s not the only one of such kind… some other towers around the world stand almost as if ready to fall.

The leaning tower in Torun, Poland (above) – obviously smaller than the one in Pisa, this tower is a simple Roman tower that started to lean immediately after its construction due to the instable ground on which it had been erected.

The tower of the church in Suurhusen, a village in the German region of East Frisia, is a reminiscent of the old 15th century fortress churches and it’s tower is said to be the most lop-sided building in the world, beating the Tower of Pisa by 1.22 degrees.

This tower in Liuzhou, in south China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region is a bell tower in a residential area in Liuzhou. The demolition of the tower earlier failed and made it lean.

This tower in Inwa, Myanmar, is a 90 feet tall masonry watch tower completely shattered in 1838 by an earthquake, but remains to this day at a very precarious looking angle.


Burano is a collection of islands linked by bridges and divided by canals, located approximately 9km to the north-east of Venice. The island's most notable landmark is the leaning tower of the San Martino church.

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