The Gold Tower (Torre del Oro) is a dodecagonal military watchtower in Seville, southern Spain, built by the Berbers during the Almohad dynasty in order to control access to Seville via the Guadalquivir river.
Constructed in the first third of the 13th century, the tower served as a prison during the Middle Ages and as a secure enclosure for the protection of precious metals periodically brought by the fleet of the Indies, another possible origin for the tower's name.
The tower is divided into three levels, with the third and upermostbeing circular in shape and added in 1760. This tower has a lesserknown half sister: La Torre de la Plata, an octagonal tower.