The notion of watchtower may be used in different contexts. A watchtower can be a tower built on an elevation to keep an eye on what is happening on the surrounding land or in the ocean.
Unlike other towers for military use, the watchtower is usually built in isolation. The height offers the security guard the necessary perspective to observe large surfaces and also confers security against possible attacks.
Various concentration camps and prisons had their own watchtowers. In these cases, the control was carried out towards the interior: that is, the inmates were watched so that they did not escape. In the military field, the watchtowers lost their preponderance due to the development of technologies such as drones and satellites.
The Valmojado watchtower is an example of this concept. It was built in the 15th century at more than 650 meters above sea level in Valmojado, a Spanish municipality that belongs to the province of Toledo (in the autonomous community of Castilla-La Mancha ).
Atalaya is also the name of several localities. In the Buenos Aires province of Magdalena, in Argentina, there is a town of less than a thousand inhabitants called Atalaya. There are also administrative entities called Atalaya in Cúcuta ( Colombia ), Ucayali ( Peru ), Veraguas ( Panama ) and Badajoz ( Spain ), among other places.
A small volcanic cone and a dry river located in Mazarrón, a municipality in the Spanish region of Murcia, are known as Rambla de la Atalaya. More specifically, it is located in the Moreras reventón, at a distance of around 3 kilometers from the municipal capital. Currently only half of its crater can be seen.
A genus of plants native to Australia, a Spanish theater company and a very popular confectionery, bar and bakery in Argentina that is on the way to the Atlantic Coast (starting from the City of Buenos Aires ) are other elements called Atalaya.
Regarding the genus of plants, watchtower includes eleven species of trees and shrubs that belong to the Sapindaceae family. While they are native to Australia, two of the species are found in Malaysia and Africa. Almost all Australian specimens are trees that grow in rainforests, although this genus appears in more parts of the country, both in arid and semi-arid areas.
DC Comics used this term to give name to various bases used by the Justice League of America, a group of superheroes formed by the most important characters of the DC Universe presented for the first time in 1960. Among its representations is a station space orbiting the Earth and a building located on the moon.
In Jerez de la Frontera, in the Spanish region of Andalusia, there is a cultural space called Museums of the Watchtower where we can find, in addition to museums, several multipurpose rooms and complexes created with the aim of holding shows, celebrations and meetings of different kinds.
Other cultural activities that take place in the theme center include meetings and conventions such as the summer cycle Bohemian Nights. The Andrés de Ribera Foundation is in charge of the administration of this group of museums, and the presidency is assumed by the Diputación de Cádiz or the mayor of Jerez de la Frontera, something that alternates every four years.
In the Spanish Navy, there is a series of four patrol vessels based at the La Graña naval station, and one of them bears the name Atalaya (P-74). He is the last of the group and was sent to the Grand Bank of Newfoundland during the halibut war, a number of clashes between Spain and Canada over fishing rights on that continental shelf.
