Towers are tall human-made structures, always (and usually much) taller than they are wide. Towers are generally built to take advantage of their height, and can stand alone or as part of a larger structure. Examples of the various uses of towers include:
To save ground-level space: skyscrapers
To enhance views: tourist towers, air-traffic Control tower, railroad yard tower, harbor control tower, filming tower, fire lookout tower, camera tower, targeting tower
To increase strategic advantage: prison watch tower, defensive walls, siege tower
To increase potential energy: storage silo, water tower, drilling tower, ski-jump ramp
To enhance communications: radio mast, lighthouse, light tower, minaret, bell tower, clock tower, weather beacon
As support: suspension bridge, cable-stayed bridge, pylon, aerial tramway support pillar
To access tall or high objects: launch tower, service tower, supply tower, scaffold, tower wagon
To access atmospheric conditions aloft: wind turbine, meteorological measurement tower, tower telescope, solar power station
To take advantage of the temperature gradient inherent in a height differential: cooling tower, chimney
To protect from exposure: BREN Tower
For industrial production: shot tower
To drop objects: drop tower, bomb tower, diving platform
To test height-intensive applications: elevator test tower
To improve structural integrity: thyristor tower
To mimic towers or provide height for training purposes: fire tower, parachute tower
As art: Eiffel Tower, Shukhov Tower, Space Needle
For recreation: rock climbing tower
As a symbol: Tower of Babel, The Tower (Tarot card), church tower
Skyscrapers are often not classified as towers, although most have the same design and structure of towers. In the
United Kingdom, tall domestic buildings are referred to as
tower blocks. In the
United States, the now-destroyed
World Trade Center had the nickname the Twin Towers, a name shared with the
Petronas Twin Towers in
Kuala Lumpur.
The term "tower" is also sometimes used to refer to firefighting equipment with an extremely tall ladder designed for use in firefighting/rescue operations involving high-rise buildings.
Etymology
Old English ''torr'' is from Latin ''turris'' via
Old French ''tor''. The Latin term together with Greek τύρσις was loaned from a
pre-Indo-European Mediterranean language, connected with the
Illyrian toponym
Βου-δοργίς. With the
Lydian toponyms Τύρρα, Τύρσα, it has been connected with the ethnonym
Τυρρήνιοι as well as with ''Tusci'' (from ''
Turs-ci''), the Greek and Latin names for the Etruscans (Kretschmer Glotta 22, 110ff.)