Here's What The World's Tallest Slum Looks Like

    An intimate look at the lives of the 3,000 people in Caracas's "Tower of David".

    It boasts a helicopter landing pad, glorious views of the Avila mountain range, and large balconies for weekend barbecues.

    But it's no five-star hotel or swanky apartment block: it is a slum, probably the highest in the world.

    It was intended to be a shining new financial centre but was abandoned around 1994 after the death of its developer - banker and horse-breeder David Brillembourg - and the collapse of the financial sector.

    In 2007, squatters invaded the huge concrete skeleton.

    Then-president Hugo Chavez's socialist government turned a blind eye, and now about 3,000 people call the tower their home.

    "The residents regard it as a safe haven from the violence and turf warfare that blights the capital’s street-level slums," reports The Independent.

    Photographer Jorge Silva took these photos in February.

    On the Reuters blog, he writes: "The tower is a physical example of the greatest problems faced by Venezuelan society: a great scarcity of housing, and a security crisis."

    His first attempts to document people's lives in 2007 weren't successful, because the residents were hostile to the media after a critical article about them.

    It still attracts hostile headlines, and featured in an episode of Homeland as a kidnappers' den.

    Silva writes: "My intention wasn’t to follow on from these headlines. I wanted above all to create a portrait of the lives of the thousands of people who call this place home, and who face struggles and risks every day."

    "I wanted to document without judging."

    Silva says he felt there was a strong sense of community in the tower.

    "Inside the building’s long hallways there are warehouses, clothing stores, beauty parlours and day-care centers."

    And on one occasion, a resident told Silva that he thought they were "the richest of the poor".

    This post has been corrected to properly credit The Independent as a source.