Coventry Cathedral bronze effigy and tomb of its first bishop, Huyshe Yeatman-Biggs, survived. The ruins of this older cathedral remain hallowed ground and are listed at Grade I. Following the bombing of the medieval cathedral in 1940, Provost Richard Howard had the words "Father Forgive" inscribed on the wall behind the altar of the ruined building. The spire rises to 90 m (295 ft) and is the tallest structure in the city. It is also the third tallest cathedral spire in England, with only Salisbury and Norwich cathedrals rising higher. The current St Michael's Cathedral, built next to the remains of the
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)