Which capital city is home to the Eiffel Tower?

Paris is the capital city of France and home to the Eiffel Tower. The landmark stands on the Champ de Mars beside the Seine, in Paris’s 7th arrondissement.

Gustave Eiffel’s engineering company designed and built the tower for the 1889 Exposition Universelle, or World’s Fair. The event marked the centennial of the French Revolution. Construction began in 1887, and the tower opened to visitors in May 1889.

At about 300 metres high when completed, the Eiffel Tower became the tallest human-made structure in the world, surpassing Washington, D.C.’s Washington Monument. It held that distinction until New York’s Chrysler Building was completed in 1930. A later antenna increase brought its current height to 330 metres.

The tower was initially criticized by prominent French artists and intellectuals, who disliked its industrial appearance. It later became one of the world’s most recognizable landmarks and a symbol of France. It forms part of the UNESCO World Heritage site known as Paris, Banks of the Seine.