Gothic architecture towers on the front is the norm. In England, Germany and Scandinavia this is often the arrangement, but an English cathedral may also be surmounted by an enormous tower at the crossing. Smaller churches usually have just one tower, but this may also be the case at larger buildings, such as Salisbury Cathedral or Ulm Minster in Ulm, Germany, completed in 1890 and possessing the tallest spire in the world, slightly exceeding that of Lincoln Cathedral, the tallest spire that was actually completed during the medieval period, at . The exteriors and interiors of Gothic cathedrals, particularly in France, were
History of the world's tallest buildings to be tall, but its true height is not known. For thousands of years, the Great Pyramid in Egypt was the tallest "structure" in the world, but the Great Pyramid is not considered a building since it is not habitable. The earliest structures now known to be the tallest in the world were the Egyptian pyramids, with the Great Pyramid of Giza, at an original height of , being the tallest man-made structure in the world for over 3,800 years, until the construction of Lincoln Cathedral in 1300. From then until the completion of the Washington Monument (capped in 1884)