After that bell was installed, it cracked, too! The engineers weren’t about to remove a 13-ton bell and lower it 300 feet to the ground for repairs, so they did something else. The first bell made for the tower cracked before it was even installed, so a new one had to be made. Then a team of workmen spent 18 hours pulling on ropes to raise the humongous bell 300 feet in the air and place it inside the tower. When it was installed in the 1800’s, it took a cart and 16 horses to bring it to the site. The fifth and largest bell, called Big Ben, weighs over 13 tons and bongs every hour. Inside the tower, there are four bells that chime every 15 minutes. They even use pennies as weights! The clocks are wound inside the tower by hand every three days, taking 1.5 hours each time, kind of like winding large metal hamster wheels. So, we now know that the tower and the four clocks are big – and so are the clock hands! The hour hands are almost 9 feet (or 2.7 meters) long and the minute hands are 14 feet (or 4.3 meters) long! Can you imagine if you had to set those clocks by leaning out of a window 300 feet in the air? Luckily, the clocks are run by mechanisms, like pendulums, wheels, gears, and rods. There was no sneaking out early when Queen Victoria was watching those clocks! It is said that Queen Victoria used to look out of Buckingham Palace at night and see the clocks lit up, meaning that her ministers were still working late into the night. How tall or wide is that? Well, take four or five of your friends and have them stand on each other’s shoulders! That’s a tall stack – and a tall clock! The clocks are lit by electric lightbulbs but in the 1800’s they were lit by gas lamps. It has four sides measuring 40 feet each, and to get to the top of the tower you need to go inside and climb 393 steps.Īt the top of the tower are four clock faces measuring 22.5 feet in diameter. It was completed in 1859 and stands 316 feet – or 96 meters – tall. Give up? It’s Big Ben – the massive clock tower in London, England! Actually, Big Ben is the large bell INSIDE the tower, but most people now call the tower “Big Ben,” too!īig Ben, the tower, is one of the most iconic – or recognizable – landmarks in the world, just like the Eiffel Tower in Paris, the Great Sphynx of Giza in Egypt, or the Statue of Liberty in New York. It has appeared in many films, including Peter Pan, the Great Mouse Detective, Young Sherlock Holmes, and A Christmas Carol. Need some more hints? Well, it has been around for over 150 years and has been seen by millions of people but is not alive. What is over 300 feet tall, has a pointy cap, eight hands, and four faces? Did you guess a monster, a space creature, or a huge robot? Nope, guess again. Do you like riddles? I know I do and I have a tricky one for you today.
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