01 What exactly you are looking at
The group is three towers completed in 1979, planted on a spit of land jutting into the sea. The largest carries two spheres threaded onto its shaft at different heights; the second carries one; the third carries none and ends in a spire. From a distance they look like a sculptural whim, and up close you realise they are not.
The lower sphere of the main tower is a water tank, and the upper, smaller one is the viewing deck. The second tower is also a tank. The third stores no water: it carries the equipment that lights the other two. That is, of the three elements of the group, two are pure water infrastructure.
02 Why a tank ends up a symbol
To understand it you have to leave the spit and look at the rest of the city. In 1976, 33 water towers were built at strategic points, with a combined capacity of more than 100,000 cubic metres and tanks of 3,000 each, shaped like inverted cups and striped blue and white.
That is, the city already had a visual language for its tanks before the three famous towers existed. When the time comes to build a singular element on the best point of the coast, you are not starting from scratch: you are starting from a family of objects already in the landscape and recognised by everyone.
Thirty-three towers spread across the city and more than 100,000 cubic metres stored up high. The symbol came out of the network, not the other way round.
03 What you see from up there
Going up is worth it for one specific reason: it is the only point in the city from which you grasp its shape. From up there you see that the capital is a narrow strip pressed against the water, with desert behind and sea in front, and that all its growth has happened along the coast rather than inland.
And you also see something the street does not show: the empty plots. Between the office towers there are large unbuilt areas and enormous car parks, which explain why this city has no continuous street fabric despite its size. It is a complete urban diagnosis in ten minutes on a viewing deck.
04 How to look at them
Two practical tips. First: go up late in the afternoon. With a high sun and the usual haze the view flattens and the horizon disappears; in the hour before sunset, low light cuts out the buildings and the city's layout becomes readable. Second: the sphere is fully glazed, so press the lens against the glass to avoid reflections.
And a different way of seeing them, which almost nobody does: first look at any of the ordinary tank clusters scattered around the city, beside a road and with no monumental intent, and only then go to the spit. Seen in that order, the three towers stop being a sculpture and become what they are: the flourish at the end of a network.
