Eiffel Tower.

The Eiffel Tower is a wrought-iron lattice tower on the Champ de Mars in Paris, built as the entrance arch for the 1889 World's Fair. It was the world's tallest man-made structure for 41 years.

Setting & geography

Eiffel Tower stands in Paris, France, at coordinates 48.86°, 2.29°. The surrounding landscape — urban, coastal, mountainous or rural — frames how the site is approached, photographed and understood. It pushed the limits of what was technically possible at the time of its construction, and remains a benchmark of engineering ambition.

Architecture & form

The Eiffel Tower is a wrought-iron lattice tower, built using puddle iron forged at Pompey in north-eastern France. Its open-work design was a deliberate engineering choice — the tower had to be tall enough to dominate Paris but light enough to stand on relatively soft ground, and the lattice form let wind pass through rather than push against the structure.

The tower rises in three stages — first floor, second floor, and the summit — connected by a combination of staircases and lifts. The original lifts were a remarkable engineering achievement in their own right, climbing through the tower's curved legs using hydraulic mechanisms that had to be re-engineered for each angle of ascent.

Its silhouette is one of the most-recognised in the world, but the tower's beauty is mathematical: every curve in its profile follows an equation that minimises wind resistance. Eiffel and his engineers also paid close attention to how the structure would be painted — the tower is repainted approximately every seven years, traditionally in graduated shades of brown that grow lighter towards the top to compensate for the colour of the sky behind it.

Construction & history

The Eiffel Tower was designed by engineers Maurice Koechlin and Émile Nouguier, working under Gustave Eiffel, as the centrepiece of the 1889 Exposition Universelle in Paris — held to mark the centenary of the French Revolution. Construction began in January 1887 and finished in March 1889, taking just over two years and employing around 300 workers.

The project was hugely controversial. A group of prominent French artists and intellectuals — including Charles Gounod, Guy de Maupassant, and Charles Garnier, the architect of the Paris Opera — published a furious protest letter denouncing the tower as a useless and monstrous iron column that would disfigure Paris. The artists lost; the tower was built; and most of them were eventually photographed visiting it.

The tower was originally meant to stand for only 20 years before being dismantled, but Eiffel had championed its scientific uses — meteorology, aerodynamics experiments, and especially radio transmission — and these saved it. By the time its demolition permit expired in 1909, the tower was being used as a radio antenna and was deemed too useful to take down. It has since survived two world wars (with German occupiers reportedly unable to figure out how to operate the lifts), become the most-visited paid monument in the world, and outlived almost every critic who signed that 1887 protest letter.

Cultural significance

Eiffel Tower appears on stamps, coins, school textbooks and a thousand photographs taken every day. It functions as a piece of national identity for France and as a piece of shared global heritage. UNESCO, national heritage agencies and local custodians typically have overlapping interests in the site’s protection — a useful tension that keeps the place both authentic and accessible.

Plan your visit

Most visitors reach Eiffel Tower from Paris by public transport, organised tour or private taxi; check official sources for current opening hours, ticket prices and seasonal closures before you travel. Best light for photography typically falls in the early morning or the hour before sunset, when crowds also tend to thin. Modest dress and respectful behaviour are expected at religious or memorial sites; many landmarks restrict tripods, drones or large bags. Allow at least two hours on site and longer if you intend to visit any associated museums or grounds.

Specifications

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Did you know?

The Eiffel Tower was originally intended as a temporary 20-year exhibit but was saved by its usefulness as a radiotelegraph station — it has stood for over 130 years.