Abraj Al-Bait Clock Tower

The Abraj Al Bait tower (Arabic: أبراج البيت Abrādsch al-Bayt) is a skyscraper in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. The skyscraper is booked with many records: as the third highest skyscraper in the world after the Burj Khalifa in Dubai and the Shanghai Tower in Shanghai, as the highest hotel in the world and as the building with the largest clock in the world. The tower complex stands on the site of the 18th century Ottoman Ajyad castle until 2002.

It is a complex of different buildings, the highest of which measures 601 meters. The complex has the second largest floor area in the world, with around 1,500,000 m² (after the 1,700,000 m2 of the New Century Global Center in Chengdu, China). There is also a four-storey shopping mall, the Abraj Al Bait Mall, and a parking garage with space for more than 1,000 cars.

The complex towers above the Ka'ba, the central shrine of Islam. The hotel has room for 10,000 visitors to the Kaaba and the highest tower also has a five-star hotel for visitors to the Hajj. There are also residential towers with helicopter decks for business people. In total, around 100,000 people can stay in the towers. The highest habitable floor is at an altitude of 450 meters, just below the clocks. The top of the clocks is at 530 meters altitude, on top of that is a 71 meter high peak which makes the tower 601 meters high. In 2006, the height was 485 meters, but in 2009 it was made public that the final height would be 601 meters.

The highest tower was designed by the German architect Mahmoud Bodo Rasch. According to the Saudi Ministry of Islamic Affairs, the project cost a total of 15 billion US dollars.

The structure is located across the street from the entrance to Masjid al-Haram, inside which is the Kaaba, considered by Muslims the most holy place in the world. For this reason, the Abraj Al-Bait has a space for prayer, with a capacity to hold approximately four thousand people. In addition, the highest tower contains a five-star hotel to accommodate the more than two million pilgrims participating in the Hajj each year.

Clock

The dial of the clock (on the highest building of the complex) is visible from about 25 kilometers away. It is the largest clock on earth. All four clocks (one on each side of the building) have a diameter of 46 meters and are illuminated with 2 million LED lights. The clocks are the highest clocks in the world. Just above the clocks are texts from the Koran. There is a large golden pillar on all four corners. The four sides of the clocks are covered with 98 million glass mosaic pieces. The hand for the minutes is 22 meters long and the hand for the hours is 17 meters long. The clock was designed by PERROT GmbH & Co in Germany.

Antenna

The clock tower is topped by a 93-meter needle with a golden 23-meter crescent at its upper end. The needle has a black observation room at the bottom that contains a lunar gallery, a control tower and a main observation platform.

Records

The building has received numerous awards. They are the following:

• Tallest hotel in the world (601 meters).
• World's largest clock (43 x 43 meters).
• World's tallest clock (400 meters).
• Largest building in the world (1,575,815 m²).