The Leaning Tower
This is what you see as you walk through the city walls.The leaning tower of Pisa is the Bell Tower of the Cathedral
This is one of those things I saw in a book - I never expected to actually see. It was bigger than I expected.
Saving the leaning Tower
After 800 years in which the Leaning Tower of Pisa tilted steadily to the south, engineers have finally moved it back 45 centimetres (17 inches) and got it stable.
Computer models suggest that it should have toppled once it reached a tilt of 5.44 degrees - but by 1990 it was leaning by 5.5 degrees, with the seventh level, just below the belltower, overhanging the ground by 4.5 metres (15 feet).
The engineers solved the problem - at least for a couple of hundred years - by placing lead weights on the north side of the tower, and removing tonnes of soil from underneath the building using corkscrew drills. The tower slowly sank into the cavity created.
By June 2000, the tilt had been corrected by 16 cm (six inches) returning the tower to the angle it was at in 1870.
By the time work finished on 6 June, 2001, the tower had been returned to the position it was in 1838, before work to dig a walkway round the base of the tower caused it to lurch rapidly further south.
45 Centimeters is ALOT, if you search the web for pictures pre 2000, there is a significant difference. The tower learned much farther than it does today.
Why is the Tower Bannana Shaped?
The tower is "banana-shaped", with the belltower 1.5 degrees closer to the vertical than the base.
The first four stories were built in the late 12th Century, the next three in the 13th, and the belltower was added on in the 14th - there are four steps up to it on one side, and six on the other.
The tower may at first have leaned to the north, leading the builders to over-correct, and send it inexorably moving south.
Sharon and I walking in a large courtyard
This is one of those things I saw in a book - I never expected to actually see. It was bigger than I expected.
Saving the leaning TowerAfter 800 years in which the Leaning Tower of Pisa tilted steadily to the south, engineers have finally moved it back 45 centimetres (17 inches) and got it stable.Computer models suggest that it should have toppled once it reached a tilt of 5.44 degrees - but by 1990 it was leaning by 5.5 degrees, with the seventh level, just below the belltower, overhanging the ground by 4.5 metres (15 feet).
The engineers solved the problem - at least for a couple of hundred years - by placing lead weights on the north side of the tower, and removing tonnes of soil from underneath the building using corkscrew drills. The tower slowly sank into the cavity created.
By June 2000, the tilt had been corrected by 16 cm (six inches) returning the tower to the angle it was at in 1870.
By the time work finished on 6 June, 2001, the tower had been returned to the position it was in 1838, before work to dig a walkway round the base of the tower caused it to lurch rapidly further south.
45 Centimeters is ALOT, if you search the web for pictures pre 2000, there is a significant difference. The tower learned much farther than it does today.
Why is the Tower Bannana Shaped?The tower is "banana-shaped", with the belltower 1.5 degrees closer to the vertical than the base.
The first four stories were built in the late 12th Century, the next three in the 13th, and the belltower was added on in the 14th - there are four steps up to it on one side, and six on the other.
The tower may at first have leaned to the north, leading the builders to over-correct, and send it inexorably moving south.
--------------------------------------------------------
The town of Lucca, Italy
Lucca is a small walled city in Tuscany
Lucca is a small walled city in TuscanySan Michele in Foro is a Basilica Church in Lucca
Sharon and I walking in a large courtyard
1 comment:
I think Lucca is my favorite so far! It looks like I would imagine all of Tuscany to look - green rolling hills, beautiful walled cities...
Arden
Post a Comment