Ear, Human, Structure of the cochlea

The cochlea contains the sensory organ of hearing. It bears a striking resemblance to the shell of a snail and in fact takes its name from the Greek word for this object. The cochlea is a spiral tube that is coiled two and one-half turns around a hollow central pillar, the modiolus. It forms a cone approximately 9 millimetres (0.35 inch) in diameter at its base and 5 millimetres