The Tower of London

Tower of London


If you are looking for a castle out of a fairy tale with a moat and all, then that is the Tower of London. It is exactly what you would imagine a castle might look like. The only difference is the Tower of London is so old that the city of London had to build itself around it.

After I bought a ticket which was 14.50 GBPs (Great British Pounds) for me because I am a student, I waited in a line for maybe two minutes to enter. I walked through two stone towers which have the Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom displayed above the entrance. This then leads to a small bridge that is over land not water, with a large courtyard to the left. There are multiple paths to take and signs are posted everywhere so you can easily find your way around, that way you don't go in circles.

One of the main attractions is the Crown Jewels. The Jewels have been kept there for hundreds of years. Most of the Jewels that are there are for the coronations and they also include the three largest diamonds in the world. Across from where the jewels are kept there is the White Tower.

White Tower was the original fortress, built in 1078 by William the Conqueror, before the other buildings were constructed around it. The first floor held many weapons and types of armor which were used in battle. The second floor also had weapons and armor, but for sports such as jousting. The tower has a hands-on room where you can lift the old weapons, play against someone in a sword game to see who is faster and you can calculate how well you would do at shooting arrows.

Another tower is where kings used to keep prisoners. Inside, three ways that they used to torture prisoners are on display. One includes stretching the prisoners' bodies till they broke at the joints. The second method of torture was to fold a man up into a ball with his knees touching his chest and then placing him in a contraption that would crush him just enough so he could fit and still be alive. The last one was to hang prisoners up by their wrists using iron bars and iron pins to secure them and this would be done several feet off the floor. This normally caused the prisoners to not be able to use their arms for a certain amount of days.

There are live ravens on the grounds but they are trained to not leave a certain area of the castle. There is a legend dating back centuries that states that if the ravens leave the grounds then the White Tower, the monarchy, and the kingdom will crumble. They give a real life feel to the castle and add sounds you might have heard back then

I really enjoyed my day at the tower and I encourage all to go see it if you are visiting.