London's Big Ben - The World's Most Famous Clock

The Houses of Parliament and Elizabeth Tower, commonly called as Big Ben, it is the icon of London. The name of Big Ben is come from the massive bell inside the clock tower. The clock inside the tower was the world's largest during the installed in the middle of the nineteenth century. There are 334 steps to arrival the top of the Big Ben.The tower was constructed around 1843 and completed 13 years later in 1856. The weights of the bell is more than 13 tons (13, 760 kilogram) and the height rises to a total of 316 feet. The clock tower have four clock faces. The hour bell began striking the hours in July 1859.

The history of Big Ben begin when the Palace of Westminster was destroyed by fire in 1834. In 1844, the new buildings of Houses of Parliament was decided to include a tower and a clock. Now, Big Ben as the favourite landmark of London. There are two theories exist, the first is was named Sir Benjamin Hall, the first commissioner of works, a large man who was known affectionately in the house as "Big Ben"; and the second theory is that it was named after a heavy weight boxing champion at that time, Benjamin Caunt, also known as "Big Ben", this nickname was commonly bestowed in society to anything that was the heaviest in its class.