10 facts about the Eiffel Tower.. do you know them?

Arabiaweather.com - Ismail Ghasemi - The old and grand iron lady of Paris - the Eiffel Tower - celebrates its 127th birthday this year, as the tower was inaugurated during the 1889 International Exhibition in Paris.

It is worth noting that this landmark, which most of the world's population wishes to stand near and take pictures of, was not popular when its construction began. Rather, artists, sculptors and architects sent a petition to the Paris exhibition commissioner asking to stop building the "ridiculous tower".

Here are 10 facts about the Eiffel Tower:

The construction of the Eiffel Tower took two years, two months and five days, and the work began in July 1887, and it was designed by Alexandre Gustave Eiffel.

- The cost of building this landmark amounted to 7,779,401 French gold francs, which is more than the expected number that was presented, which is one and a half million francs.

The Eiffel Tower is 324 meters high, including the antenna at the top.

- The Eiffel Tower grows an average of six inches when exposed to intense heat from the sun's rays and shrinks in the cold. But it is hard to see it with the naked eye.

The approximate weight of the tower is 10,000 tons.

- The plan was for the tower to be only 20 years old, to commemorate the French Revolution and to show the industrial capacity of France, but Gustave Eiffel seems to have convinced them to change the plan because the tower could be used as a wireless telegraph transmitter.

- The escalator travels 103,000 kilometers each year, up and down, a number that is two and a half times the Earth's circumference.

- The Iron Lady has been painted 18 times over the years, and the process of painting the giant tower required 60 tons of paint. Undoubtedly, this job is not for the faint of heart, but if you are brave you can feel the experience of these workers walking on the newly constructed private glass floor.

- The Eiffel Tower remained in its position as the tallest skyscraper in the world for 41 years, before it was replaced by the Chrysler Building in New York.

- The world almost lost the Eiffel Tower in 1944 when Hitler ordered the German military ruler of France to demolish it, but the latter refused.