Is it true that all the gold in the world could fit under the Eiffel Tower between the ground and the first cross span?

I found this a bit difficult to believe, but several sites claim that all the gold ever mined in the world would fit under the Tower in the form of a cube:




http://cogweb.ucla.edu/Chumash/Goldrush.html

It is hard to believe when you think of all the jewellery in the world AND all the gold bullion held by governments as reserves.

The following link uses the "Washington Monument" for a similar comparison:

"Fifty million ounces times 200 years = 10 billion ounces. Ten billion ounces of gold would fit into a cube roughly 25 meters (about 82 feet) on a side. Consider that the Washington Monument measures 55 feet by 55 feet at its base and is 555 feet tall (17 x 17 x 170 m). That means that if you could somehow gather every scrap of gold that man has ever mined into one place, you could only build about one-third of the Washington Monument."


http://www.howstuffworks.com/question213.htm

Interesting, isn't it? I ran across this little fact myself the other day. Here's another convincing-looking reference. Look just below the gold cube that illustrates the volume of a ton of gold.

[From indiabullion.com 2007 article, no longer online]

A jeweler told me it's not true that jewelry isn't made of pure gold because it can't hold its shape. He said it can hold its shape just fine but almost no one could afford to buy it.