Bell tower
Videos
A bell tower is a tower that contains one or more bells, or that is designed to hold bells even if it has none. Such a tower commonly serves as part of a Christian church, and will contain church bells, but there are also many secular bell towers, often part of a municipal building, an educational establishment, or a tower built specifically to house a carillon. Church bell towers often incorporate clocks, and secular towers usually do, as a public service.
Elizabeth Tower, London completed in 1859; better known as Big Ben.
The Leaning Tower of Pisa, campanile of the Duomo di Pisa, Italy
St Mark's Campanile, Venice
Minaret
Videos
A minaret is a type of tower typically built into or adjacent to mosques. Minarets are generally used to project the Muslim call to prayer (adhan) from a muezzin, but they also served as landmarks and symbols of Islam's presence. They can have a variety of forms, from thick, squat towers to soaring, pencil-thin spires.
An orientalist depiction of the muezzin's call to prayer from the balcony of a minaret, 1878. Usually only one muezzin chants the azan from the balcony, back straight and not leaning on the railing.
Inside the stairway of a minaret in Mostar
Inside the Giralda minaret in Seville, which has ascending ramps instead of stairs