Skywatch Friday - skyline conversations

The conversation I had in mind when I took this shot was the one between the streaming plume of cloud and the docile clouds below.  As I framed the shot however I was aware of the tiny scale of the houses, and that got me thinking about Edinburgh's skyline in general.  

We have the cluster of monuments on Calton Hill, the Castle, of course,  and the Royal Mile.  There are a few very modest 1960s tower blocks erected by Edinburgh University, tall blocks among the social housing outside the city centre and in the new waterfront quarters being created, but apart from those the World Heritage status awarded to the Old and New Towns in 1995 by UNESCO means that our skyline conversations are somewhat restrained, and restricted by the hilly nature of the terrain.  It probably accounts for my sense of dislocation on a visit to Antwerp, where tall buildings stood up from a flat cityscape that stretched away to the horizon. 

 Photos I took first thing on the same day from the same spot but facing the other way show how buildings seem to hug the contours of the land.  I was taking this shot to track progress of the ongoing flood defence work, but you can see how the New Town seems all of a piece.  A church tower which would be dwarfed in other cities seems doubly tall as a result.

I can't immediately think what the crane in the shot below is constructing, but I would guess it's not a tower block.
 

Strangely, the low skyline makes me very conscious of how the city has flowed over the land beneath, covering hills and virgin ground with a stone and concrete carapace.

More skies from around the world are at Skywatch Friday.