Here's why:

* Muscle cells are specialized for contraction, which requires them to be elongated to allow for efficient shortening and lengthening.

* Skeletal muscle fibers, for example, are long, cylindrical cells that can be several centimeters in length.

* Smooth muscle cells are also elongated, but they are much smaller than skeletal muscle fibers.

* Cardiac muscle cells are branched and interconnected, but they also have a distinctly elongated shape.

While other tissues might have some elongated cells, muscle tissue is the most prominent example where cells are consistently longer than they are wide.