page_title: Observation tower
section_title: Other towers
hierarchical_section_title: Observation tower / Types of observation towers / Other towers
caption_attribution_description: English: Sky Tower on a fine night lit up by blue lights, Auckland, New Zealand. Français&#160;: Le Sky Tower avec lumières bleues par une belle nuit noire, Auckland, Nouvelle Zélande.Sky Tower
context_page_description: An observation tower is a structure used to view events from a long distance and to create a full 360 degree range of vision to conduct the long distance observations. They are usually at least 20 metres tall and made from stone, iron, and wood. Many modern towers are also used as TV towers, restaurants, or churches. The towers first appeared in the ancient world, as long ago as the Babylonian Empire.
  Observation towers that are used as guard posts or observation posts over an extended period to overlook an area are commonly called watchtowers instead.
context_section_description: There are also some very unusual observation towers, which fit not well into one of these categories. Examples for this are the Henninger Turm, a grain silo with tower restaurant and observation deck in Frankfurt, the bell tower of Berlin Olympic stadium, whose platform is accessible by an elevator, the winding tower of the mining industry museum in Bochum, which has an open-air observation deck to which an elevator runs or a wind turbine in Holtriem wind park, which is equipped with a closed platform accessible over stairs. Also aerial tramway support towers, which serve as observation tower (and aerial tramway station), were realized, like Torre Jaume I in Barcelona. Even on the pylons of suspension bridges were already observation decks installed, as the example of Nový Most in Bratislava shows.
  A very unusual observation tower is Pont basculant de la Seyne-sur-Mer. It was once a bascule bridge, now permanently put upright and used as observation tower.
caption: The Sky Tower in Auckland, New Zealand.
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