The big clock on the tower of the Palace of Westminster in London is often called Big Ben. But Big Ben is really the bell of the clock. It is the biggest clock bell in Britain. It weighs 13.5 tons.
The clock tower is 318 feet high. You have to go up 374 steps to reach the top. So the clock looks small from the pavement below the tower.
But its face is 23 feet wide. It would only just fit into some classrooms.
The minute-hand is 14 feet long. Its weight is equal to that of two bags of coal. The hour-hand is 9 feet long.
The clock bell is called Big Ben after Sir Benjamin Hall. He had the job to see that the bell was put up.
Sir Benjamin was a big man. One day he said in Parliament, "Shall we call the bell St. Stephen's?" St. Stephen's is the name of the tower.
But someone said for a joke, "Why not call it Big Ben?" Now the bell is known all over the world by that name.
Big Ben is the largest of the six bells of Westminster Palace in London. But it has long been associated with the name of the Clock Tower, which in September 2012 was officially called “Elizabeth Tower”. The decision to rename the tower was made by the British Parliament to mark the 60th anniversary of the reign of Queen Elizabeth II.
The tower was built in 1858. The project architect was Augustus Pugin. The height of the tower and spire is 96.3 m.
The Palace of Westminster, and therefore the tower, is on the Parliament square next to Westminster Abbey. On the opposite side of the palace there is the Thames embankment.
The Clock Tower is the largest four-sided clock mechanism in the world, and in addition, with the most accurate clocks.
At the base of each of the four clock dials there is a Latin inscription “Domine Salvam fac Reginam nostram Victoriam primam” (“God save our Queen Victoria I”).
Around the perimeter of the tower, on the left and on the right of the clock, there is another phrase in Latin – “Laus Deo” (“Glory to God” or “Praise the Lord”).
There used to be a prison in Big Ben. The last prisoner of Big Ben was a fighter for women’s rights Emmeline Pankhurst. Now, next to the Parliament there is a monument to her.
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