The London Tower and History

Something that I have forgotten about the London culture and history is how much there is and how long it has been around. On our travels to the London Tower we past many remains of old building and structure’s. How they are just integrated into to the normal spaces around the city with modern building surrounding them as they are several 1,000 apart in age. One thing in particular was the Roman wall a structure that is much older than entrance of a subway tunnel not even 100 feet away. The wall is also visible to the street with motor vehicles driving. If this wall could talk what would it have to say, how much has it seen?
The tower of London is no different this castle overlooks the nearby river with modern boats along with planes and helicopters flying over. The castle having its own history separate from the Roman wall that is just a short distance away. I am fascinated with the insane amount of the depth of history that London is filled with. No matter where you go you will find history and stories in this modern city and the London tower is stocked full of it. The Tower of London is filled to the brim with history like, The keeping of animals on the grounds, The torture of prisoners, famous prisoners, the military history, and more. Not only is this a area of history it is still in use to house the Crown Jewels. The building that the Jewels and other artifacts are stored also incorporates much of the history of the royal crown and it importance. It was fascinating to be able to see the items in person, those items holding such a significant historical presence was mesmerizing. A fascinating history that Interested me was the fact that animals where kept on the grounds for many years. Many of these animals were imported from around the world. I came across a display telling of how an ape that was imported by sea killed a boy by throwing a cannon ball at him, he then continued to destroy and throw thing upon arriving at the London Tower. Currently the only animals that are still around, and could have been their before the castle are ravens. Ravens have a weird history behind them because there is only speculation on why they were kept but no facts. They speculated at some point they were kept on the grounds, but when they went to remove them a story of when the ravens leave the grounds the fall of the kingdom will shortly follow was brought up. There was many other animals on the grounds but the ravens are the only ones that still remain. They have actually trimmed part of the feathers so that they can not easily fly away or get harmed. In one of the buildings they had a museum filled with the military history of London. I found it interesting on how over time the uniforms changed and adapted, using resources from allies to complete their kits and impacting the next generation of outfits.
Like many places the tower of London also kept prisoners during its time of operations. It spanned from Nazi to spies and even an American all with their own stories and history. The Nazi person used a parachute to drop into the area on a unauthorized peace mission. One of the spies was discovered because he had a lemon and at the time it was used to create invisible ink, he was able to play the violin all night before he was executed by firing squad. This area has a large amount of history behind it and it continues create even more history.