Washington DC's iconic National Mall bore witness to an unlikely cultural performance in the form of traditional human tower-builders hailing from the northeastern Spanish region of Catalonia, as documented in epa-efe images released Sunday.
       
Registered on UNESCO's list of the intangible heritage of humanity, these competing groups of acrobatic "castellers," or builders, stand tall on each other's shoulders and hold tight to their neighbors, starting with a sturdy base of supporters and stacking up level by level in a showdown to see who can reach the headiest of heights.
       
Two rival teams founded in the early 1800s in the town of Valls, some 6,400 kilometers from Washington DC, faced off Saturday in front of crowds of intrigued onlookers as part of the Smithsonian Museum's Folklife Festival, which this year showcases Catalan culture among others.
       
The teams managed to achieve up to seven levels on several occasions, and the last climber to reach the top --usually the smallest and the youngest-- marks the completion of the tower.
       
It is not uncommon for a human tower to come tumbling down in a semi-controlled manner that is nonetheless exhilarating to watch.
       
The tower-building practice is of Catalan/Valencian origin and was first documented in Valls, near Tarragona in the early 1700s.
       
Competitors from Colla Vella Dels Xiquets de Valls, clad in pink, and Colla Joves Xiquets de Valls, clad in red, built their castells on the National Mall in the shadow of the towering white obelisk erected in honor of the first president of the United States, George Washington (1732-99).