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Clock / Tower↕ | City↕ | Year Built↕ | Height↕ | Known For↕ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Elizabeth Tower (Big Ben) | London, England | 1859 | 96 m | The most famous clock tower on Earth and the sonic symbol of Britain — 'Big Ben' is actually the name of the 13.5-tonne bell inside, not the tower itself, the four clock faces are 7 meters in diameter and the minute hands travel 190 km per year, the bongs are broadcast live on BBC Radio to mark the hour and have been the soundtrack to every major British moment from V-E Day to New Year's Eve, survived the Blitz and leans slightly northwest by 0.26 degrees |
| Prague Astronomical Clock (Orloj) | Prague, Czech Republic | 1410 | ~25 m (on Old Town Hall) | The oldest astronomical clock still in operation, running continuously for over 600 years, displays Old Bohemian Time, Babylonian Time, sidereal time, sunrise, sunset, and the position of the moon and zodiac constellations, every hour the twelve apostles parade through two small windows while tourists crane their necks, legend says the city blinded the clockmaker so he could never build another — he cursed the clock and it stopped for a century |
| Zytglogge | Bern, Switzerland | 1530 (current mechanism) | ~23 m | The medieval clock tower that inspired Einstein's theory of relativity — he was riding a tram away from it when he imagined what would happen if the tram traveled at the speed of light and the clock appeared to stop, the astronomical dial shows the day of the week, month, zodiac sign, and phase of the moon, a gilded rooster, jester, bears, and Father Time perform every hour, the zero point from which all distances in Bern are measured |
| Makkah Royal Clock Tower | Mecca, Saudi Arabia | 2012 | 601 m | The tallest clock tower in the world and the third-tallest building on Earth, the clock faces are 43 meters in diameter (six times larger than Big Ben's), visible from 25 km away, 2 million LED lights illuminate it at night in colors corresponding to the five daily prayer times, it overlooks the Grand Mosque and the Kaaba serving as a spiritual and temporal beacon for 2 billion Muslims, its construction was controversial because it required demolishing an Ottoman-era fortress |
| Rajabai Tower | Mumbai, India | 1878 | 85 m | The Gothic-revival clock tower at the University of Mumbai modeled after Big Ben, funded by wealthy stockbroker Premchand Roychand who named it after his mother Rajabai because she was blind and used the chimes to know the time, the tower once played 16 different tunes including Rule Britannia and God Save the Queen — the tunes were changed after Indian independence, a stunning example of colonial-era architecture repurposed for a post-colonial nation |
| Clock Tower of Dolmabahce Palace | Istanbul, Turkey | 1895 | 27 m | The neo-Baroque clock tower standing between the ornate Dolmabahce Palace and the Bosphorus, commissioned by Sultan Abdulhamid II and designed by architect Sarkis Balyan, every clock in the palace was stopped at 9:05 on November 10, 1938 — the exact moment Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, founder of modern Turkey, died in a bedroom upstairs, making it one of the most emotionally charged timekeeping monuments in the world |
| Old Joe (Joseph Chamberlain Memorial Clock Tower) | Birmingham, England | 1908 | 100 m | The tallest free-standing clock tower in the world, taller than Big Ben by 4 meters, centerpiece of the University of Birmingham's red-brick campus designed by Aston Webb who also designed the facade of Buckingham Palace, named after politician Joseph Chamberlain who was the university's first chancellor, a beloved student landmark that has appeared on countless graduation photos for over a century |
| Spasskaya Tower Clock | Moscow, Russia | 1491 (tower), 1852 (current clock) | 71 m | The Kremlin's most iconic tower whose chimes broadcast on Russian state media mark noon and midnight across all 11 time zones, the clock mechanism weighs 25 tonnes and its chimes are considered the 'voice of Russia', originally a gate tower through which tsars processed for their coronation, the red star atop it weighs a tonne and was added by the Soviets in 1937 replacing the original double-headed eagle, no one may walk through its gate without removing their hat — a tradition dating back centuries |
| Allen-Bradley Clock Tower | Milwaukee, United States | 1962 | 86 m | The largest four-faced clock in the world according to Guinness — each octagonal face is 12.2 meters across, larger than Big Ben's, intentionally not recognized as a 'clock tower' by Guinness to preserve Big Ben's title as the largest 'four-faced striking clock', a factory clock tower for the Rockwell Automation headquarters that became an unlikely Milwaukee landmark, lit with orange LED illumination since 2010 that makes it glow against the skyline |
| Rathaus-Glockenspiel | Munich, Germany | 1908 | ~85 m (on New Town Hall) | The famous glockenspiel in Munich's Marienplatz that draws 20,000 spectators daily who watch 32 life-sized mechanical figures reenact two stories — a 16th-century jousting tournament and the Schäfflertanz (coopers' dance) performed after a plague, the carillon plays three tunes daily at 11am and noon (plus 5pm in summer), a mechanical rooster crows three times to signal the end of the show, the figures were fully restored after bomb damage in World War II |
| Peace Tower Clock | Ottawa, Canada | 1927 | 92.2 m | The clock tower at the center of Canada's Parliament that serves as the nation's most recognizable architectural symbol, the tower houses a 53-bell carillon that plays daily concerts, built as a memorial to Canadians who died in World War I replacing the original Victoria Tower destroyed in the 1916 Parliament fire, the clock faces are 4.8 meters in diameter and the minute hands weigh 68 kg each, appears on Canadian currency and is the focal point of every Canada Day celebration |
| Musée d'Orsay Clock | Paris, France | 1900 (as Gare d'Orsay) | Interior — ~5 m diameter | The magnificent transparent clock face of the former railway station turned world-class Impressionist art museum, looking through the clock from inside the museum gives a breathtaking view of the Seine and Sacré-Cœur, the station was built for the 1900 World's Fair and was considered too short for modern trains by 1939, its transformation into a museum in 1986 is one of the greatest adaptive reuse projects in architectural history, the clock became the museum's most Instagrammed feature |
| Olomouc Astronomical Clock | Olomouc, Czech Republic | 1422 (original), 1955 (rebuilt) | ~14 m | Originally a Gothic astronomical clock rivaling Prague's Orloj, almost completely destroyed in World War II then controversially rebuilt in Socialist Realist style — instead of saints and apostles, the figures are workers, athletes, and scientists, the only astronomical clock in the world redesigned with communist iconography, making it a bizarre and fascinating time capsule of Cold War ideology embedded in a medieval town square |
| Zimmer Tower | Lier, Belgium | 1930 (clock additions) | ~30 m (medieval tower) | A 14th-century tower fitted by clockmaker Louis Zimmer with his Centenary Clock containing 13 dials showing tides, moon phases, zodiac position, seasons, and a cosmic clock that completes one rotation every 25,800 years tracking the precession of the equinoxes, the Wonderclock inside the tower has 57 dials, Zimmer was a self-taught genius whose clocks are so complex that only a handful of people alive can maintain them |
| Thessaloniki White Tower Clock | Thessaloniki, Greece | 1890 (clock added) | 34 m | The iconic Ottoman-era fortification that became the symbol of Greece's second-largest city, originally called the 'Tower of Blood' because the Ottomans used it as a prison and execution site, a Jewish prisoner whitewashed it in exchange for his freedom giving it its current name, the clock was added during Greek governance and now serves as a museum of the city's 2,300-year history, its waterfront position makes it the most photographed landmark in northern Greece |
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