I climb Magdalen Tower

Those of you who read my posts from Oxford will know that one of Oxford's colleges, Magdalen College, has a particularly tall tower. A few days ago, I finally got the chance to climb to the top of the tower. It was a very sunny day, so I got a great view. I have lots of pictures from my climb to share with you.

I have my camera ready to take lots of pictures on my trip up Magdalen Tower.

In order to go up the tower, you have to get the giant key to unlock the door. You might wonder why you can't use a normal sized key to unlock the door. The answer is that it's a giant door, so you need a giant key.

My friend Kyle holds me while I hold the giant key to unlock the giant door to Magdalen Tower.

Once you get inside the tower, you have to climb up what seems like an endless spiral staircase. Like all medieval spiral staircases, you have to walk up it in a clockwise direction. The reason for this is that a person defending the tower from hypothetical attackers would be able to carry his sword in his right hand as he ran down the stairs. Because Magdalen Tower was built so long ago, it has really tall and treacherous steps. I had to get my friend Kyle to carry me up the stairs.

The stairs inside Magdalen Tower were as tall as I am!

Eventually, I made it all the way to the top of the tower. The tower has a lead roof, which gets really hot. The reason the roof is made of lead is that it required so much weight to press down on the stones to keep them in place for hundreds of years.

I have made it to the roof of the tower.

From the roof of Magdalen Tower, you can get a really good view of Oxford.

A view of the top of Magdalen College from Magdalen Tower.

A view of Oxford's High Street as seen from Magdalen Tower.

I pose high above the city of Oxford.

The top of the tower has some fun intricate carvings. Here is a photo of me in front of an intricately carved window at the top of the tower.

I sit in the window on top of Magdalen Tower.

Magdalen Tower is also known for its intricately carved gargoyles. A gargoyle is a small statue of a scary-looking creature which is placed on the top of a building to scare away evil spirits. In the photo below, you can see some really interesting gargoyles. The one right above my right ear, which looks kind of like a really creepy cat, is particularly famous. Some people say that that gargoyle inspired the Cheshire Cat in the stories about Alice in Wonderland. In actuality, I think that isn't really true. But it is a really cool gargoyle nonetheless!

I hang out with the gargoyles on the top of Magdalen Tower.