Vasco da Gama Tower BABYLON 360º
Caravel-shaped tower built for Expo '98, with panoramic Tagus River views from its rooftop bar.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to the Vasco da Gama Tower in Lisbon traces how the whole building was conceived as a monument to the explorer, not a statue but a concrete-and-steel caravel, with the observation deck built to double as its crow's nest. It covers the 1998 World's Fair that commissioned the tower, architects Leonor Janeiro and Nick Jacobs, and the river and namesake bridge visible from the top. Look out toward the Atlantic before you head back down.
This audio guide was created using AI.
Similar places
Pavilhão do Conhecimento - Ciência Viva
Hands-on science museum in a ship-shaped pavilion built for a World Exposition themed on the oceans.
Monument to the Discoveries
Monumental stone prow on the Tagus, flanked by sculpted figures from Portugal's age of exploration.
Parque das Nações
Riverside park and city district built on a reclaimed industrial wasteland along the Tagus.
Vasco da Gama Bridge
Cable-stayed road bridge spanning seventeen kilometres of the Tagus estuary, Europe's longest at its opening.
Oceanário de Lisboa
Aquarium in an artificial lagoon, its vast central tank representing all the world's oceans as one.
Oriente
Modernist train station whose steel-and-glass forest canopy transformed an industrial wasteland.