Thursday, April 7, 2011

Want to join the mile high club, but scared of flying?

Stay a night in the Kingdom Tower!

Saudi Arabia-based Kingdom Holding Company, headed by Prince Al Waleed Bin Talal, is going ahead with its plan to build a 1.6-kilometre-high tower in the Red Sea port city of Jeddah.

The tallest tower in the world when completed, already informally dubbed the mile-high tower, will be double the height of Dubai's Burj Khalifa, which is currently the world's tallest man-made structure.

The mile-high tower overlooking the Red Sea will be built on an area of 3.5 million square meters in the Obhur Gulf, 20 kilometres north of the Jeddah city centre and not far away from Jeddah's King Abdulaziz International Airport.

According to official information issued by the company, a city to be constructed around the tower will sprawl over an area of 23 million square metres at a total investment of $26.6 billion. The city will have the capacity to accommodate 80,000 people in addition to shopping and entertainment facilities. It will have hospitality facilities catering for up to a million visitors.

Although the plan was put forth in 2008, it has just recently been given the approval to begin construction.



Random fact: It will take 12 minutes to get to the top in an elevator.


22 comments:

  1. Hmmm, I still think Dubai will come out on top, they're always trying to have the tallest building in the world.
    I'd love to go upwards 1.6km in under 12 minutes though. That'd be awesome, especially if you could see out of the elevator. :O

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  2. Wow thats amazing. Id love to ride the 12 minute elevator!!!

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  3. wow
    living on the very top floor and going in to labor would suck :x

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  4. Indoor skiing, exotic beach hotels, iconic skyscrapers - what DOESN'T Dubai have?!

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  5. That is freakin' crazy tall.... 0_0

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  6. I freaking hate flying with a passion!...But now my dream of joining the mile high club can become a reality! =)...Oh wait...dont I have to fly just to get there???

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  7. Sheesh. A 12 minute ride in an elevator? That's high!

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  8. That's huge... and somehow feels completely unnecessary. Skyscrapers are the product of high land value per square meter, like in New York (can't build sideways cos it's expensive? build upwards). But in the Saudi Arabian desert... or Dubai...

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  9. Okay, when is tall and cool too tall and not cool? Seriously, this will eventually end with someone just throwing up their arms and not trying to keep up in having the best and tallest building anymore. A mile high is crazy to think about!

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  10. Wonder if they allow pets. Could be an interesting time during the right 'season' . . . .

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  11. Remember hearing about this. Extraordinary building. I wonder if you can see the people living in poverty from way up there.

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  12. this is fantastic how do they do that

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  13. i saw a programe on the buliding of this tower... truely jaw dropping stuff.

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  14. Amazing, needs a tennis court on the top.

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  15. Are you kidding me?! I wonder how they will manage to keep this thing up.

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  16. That's amazing, I would love to stay there!

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  17. Mile high eh? Is that tower completed yet? or am i crazy

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  18. Man that is fucking huge. I can't help but feel that they are wasting their oil money, as soon as we find an alternative to oil and wont have anything to do with the Middle East

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