The Imagine Peace Tower (Icelandic: Friðarsúlan, meaning "the peace column") is a memorial to John Lennon from Yoko Ono, located on Viðey Island in Kollafjörður Bay near Reykjavík, Iceland. It consists of a tall "tower of light", projected from a white stone monument that has the words "Imagine Peace" carved into it in 24 languages. These words, and the name of the tower, are a reference to Lennon's peace anthem, Imagine.
An additional panel reads: I dedicate this light tower to John Lennon / my love for you is forever / yoko ono / October 9th 2007.
The Tower consists of 15 searchlights with prisms that act as mirrors, reflecting the column of light vertically into the sky from a 10-metre wide "wishing well". It often reaches cloudbase and indeed can be seen penetrating the cloud cover. On a clear night it appears to reach an altitude of at least 4000m. The power for the lights is provided by Iceland's unique geo-thermal energy grid.
Buried underneath the light tower are upward of 500,000 written wishes that Ono gathered over the years in another project, called "Wish Trees". Ono plans to have the tower lit every year from 9 October, Lennon's birthday, through to 8 December, the date he was shot, but the tower is being lit much more frequently than that, and is lit at the moment. Iceland was selected for the project because of its beauty and its eco-friendly use of geothermal energy.
Construction of the tower started on 9 October, 2006 when Ono dedicated the location, and it was officially unveiled on the same date in 2007. In attendance with Ono were son Sean Lennon, bandmate Ringo Starr, and Olivia Harrison, widow of George Harrison, and Olivia's son Dhani Harrison. Yoko Ono said on the day of the inauguration that the tower was the best thing that she and John had ever done.
The Icelandic Postal Company released a series of stamps in October 2008 depicting the Imagine Peace Tower. The stamp is printed in a traditional offset format and then overprinted with phosphorus in silk screen which causes the picture to accumulate light and then glow in the dark. When exposed to ultraviolet light, a picture of John Lennon appears on the stamp.
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