Big Ben is one of the symbols of London, England, Great Britain, and Europe. Yes, the whole world! I remember when I saw him for the first time, I thought: "Well, what kind of "big" is he? But it turns out that the tower was named Big Ben not because it was huge, but because it housed the largest, heaviest bell in the UK. Actually, this bell was called "Big Ben" and only many years later the name passed to the entire tower. But we only figured out the first part of the name. There are two versions of why the tower became "Ben". The first is associated with the name of the construction supervisor, "foreman" Benjamin Hall (his name is engraved on the bell itself). The second one was named after the famous boxer Benjamin Count; then it was customary to assign the names of famous people to something equally big. Big Ben is very well located - the Parliament building is nearby, and the Prime Minister's residence at 10 Downing Street is just five to seven minutes away. If you walk along the embankment from Big Ben and Parliament, you will come to Scotland Yard. And, of course, Big Ben is the "Big Bentley" from Cars 2! -)) That's where the dramatic events from the second half of this blockbuster took place. Big Ben has been closed for restoration for a long time and now looks like new. A beautiful tower, a symbol of the city, one of the most recognizable signals of the tower clock (or the most recognizable?) in the history of mankind.

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Павел Бекряшев

Level 12 Local Expert

Big Ben is a clock tower located in the northeastern part of the British Parliament in Westminster. One of the main symbols of Great Britain. Officially, the tower is called the Elizabeth Tower, and Big Ben was originally named for its huge bell, which was once the heaviest in the UK. The height of the tower is 96 meters. Big Ben's watch is one of the largest in the world: the total weight of the mechanism is 5 tons. The diameter of each dial is 7 meters, the length of the hour hands is 2.7 meters, and the minute hands are 4.2 meters.

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