Her Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress The Tower of London, more commonly known as the Tower of
London (and historically simply as The Tower), is an historic monument in central London, England
on the north bank of the River Thames.
The Tower has served many purposes through history including a famous torture chamber and a prison
for high ranking people. Sir Walter Raleigh spent thirteen years (1603-1616) imprisoned at the
Tower but was able to live in relative comfort in the Bloody Tower with his wife and two children.
For some of the time he even grew tobacco on Tower Green, just outside his apartment. Here he wrote
The History of the World. Guy Fawkes, famous for his part in the Gunpowder Plot, was brought to the
Tower to be interrogated by a council of the King's Ministers. However, he was not executed here.
When he confessed he was sentenced to be hanged, drawn and quartered in the Old Palace Yard at
Westminster, however he escaped his fate by jumping off the scaffold at the gallows which in turn
broke his neck - killing him.
Today the Crown Jewels are housed inside one of the towers in the fort. The famous Kohinoor diamond
can be seen in here.