A needle piercing the sky: 10 incredible photos of the tallest building in the world

Have you ever wondered where the tallest building on our planet is located, what it looks like, who designed it, and what is inside? The first skyscraper ever built in the world, for example, is considered to be the Home Insurance Building in Chicago – from that moment began the unceasing rivalry to build the tallest building in the world.

Interesting facts about the tallest building in Dubai

At present, this position has been held for 13 years by the Burj Khalifa – a supertall skyscraper located in Dubai.

The Burj Khalifa was planned from the very beginning as the tallest building in the world, which is why its intended height had to be kept secret during construction – should a «copycat tower» aiming to be even more grandiose appear in the world, significant changes would have to be made to the project. The 828-meter-tall, 163-story skyscraper was designed as a city within a city – it has everything for a convenient, comfortable life, including boulevards, lawns, and parks. However, the Burj Khalifa is unique not only for its exceptional height.

The name

The rather popular translation of the skyscraper's name as the «royal tower» or «tower of the king» is not entirely correct. Originally the Burj Khalifa bore the name «Burj Dubai», where «burj» from Arabic translates as «tower». At the very last moment, the decision was made to name the building in honor of the President of the United Arab Emirates and Emir of Abu Dhabi, Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan. Therefore, «Khalifa» in the skyscraper's name – is nothing other than the name of the UAE president, and has nothing to do with a title.

Architecture

The tower's architect, Adrian Smith, saw the main architectural idea of the project as constructing a building in the shape of a hymenocallis, also known as a spider lily. The skyscraper is believed to be built in the shape of a stalagmite, and if you look at the building from the usual angle, it will indeed seem so. However, you only need to look at the tower from above – and you can easily make out that very flower, with the tower's wings branching off from the stem like petals.  The hymenocallis was taken as the basis to solve the problem of reinforcing the foundation, although such a choice also carried a symbolic meaning: the Burj Khalifa, like a tropical flower, grew up out of the sands.

Records set

In addition to the title of the tallest building in the world, the Burj Khalifa holds several more world records, due to which the tower has repeatedly made it into the Guinness Book of Records:

• the highest spire in the world, with a height of 180 meters,
• the highest open-air observation deck: at a height of 555 meters (the 148th floor) a magnificent view of Dubai and the Arabian Desert opens up,
• the tallest freestanding structure,
• the highest-located restaurant – on the 122nd floor,
• the highest mosque is located on the 156th floor.

Many floors

So how many floors does the tallest building have? Here too the Burj Khalifa is a record-holder: it has 163 floors. By the way, if you count the technical floors and levels, almost 50 more are added to this figure: 46 in the spire and 2 in the foundation. Floors 1 through 39 are occupied by the Armani hotel and the offices of the firm servicing the building, floors 44–108 – are residential, here you can buy an apartment. The entire hundredth floor – is 3 apartments with a total area of 1,500 square meters - and belongs to a billionaire from India.

The skyscraper set a record for the highest elevator ascent, which is considered one of the fastest in the world – you can reach the observation deck in less than a minute.

Other little-known facts

In the history of the world's tallest tower there are many more facts that definitely deserve attention:

• The Burj Khalifa became the seventh most popular destination, overtaking Disneyland and the Vatican.
• Most of the tower's electricity is generated through solar panels.
• More than 25,000 hand-cut glass panels went into cladding the building.
• The hotel's interior design within the skyscraper was developed by Giorgio Armani himself.

• Inside the building is the world's highest art gallery, where the works of more than 85 artists from around the world are displayed.
• The length of the skyscraper's shadow – is 8 kilometers. 
• The building is visible even above the clouds.
• The floor area inside the building takes up almost 14 times the area of Red Square in Moscow.
• The total weight of the building equals 100,000 elephants.
• The Burj Khalifa has its own scent. It was developed especially for the skyscraper and installed in a special system inside the tower.
• Gold bars can be bought here, like chocolate, from vending machines in the building's lobby.
• The grandeur of the world's tallest building continues beyond its walls as well: at the entrance is one of the tallest and most powerful fountains, whose jets reach 150 meters.

Rival buildings

So who did the Burj Khalifa surpass? Where was the tallest building in the world before its construction? Until 2010, in the town of Blanchard, USA (the state of North Dakota), the record-holder was the KVLY-TV broadcasting mast, with a height of 629 meters. It is still the tallest structure in the Western Hemisphere.

In 2012 and 2013, Tokyo and Shanghai completed construction of their high-rise landmarks. In Japan it became the Tokyo Skytree television tower («Sky Tree»), 634 meters tall. But the Japanese were not even striving to win the title of tallest building. More important to them was observing local traditions. In one of the Japanese dialects, the numbers 634 sound like «mu», «sa», «shi». Musashi – was the historical name of the territory where Tokyo is now located.

In 2013 in China, the Shanghai Tower was completed, which turned out to be 2 meters lower than the Tokyo TV tower – 632 meters. But nevertheless, its designers too have something to be proud of. The Shanghai Tower has a twisted facade, which gives it not only a modern, stylish appearance but also allows it to hold its defense against strong winds. And the Chinese skyscraper is also recognized as the most environmentally friendly: alternative energy sources do not harm the environment, and the building uses rainwater and wastewater for technical purposes.

The Chinese managed to break one of the Dubai skyscraper's records – for the title of the world's highest passenger elevator. The elevator in the Shanghai Tower rises to a mark of 578.5 meters versus 504 meters in the Burj Khalifa.

The second tallest building today - is the Merdeka 118 tower in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. And it falls almost 150 meters short of the UAE's pride. Construction is already complete and the tallest building in Asia has reached its peak (678.9 meters), but finishing work continues. The opening of the Malaysian skyscraper is planned for the third quarter of 2023.

In 2013 in Saudi Arabia, construction began on a tower that could well have overtaken the Burj Khalifa in height, but the project was frozen. One thing is clear: the tower is unique, and despite the fact that many believe the title of the tallest building in the world will not remain with the skyscraper forever – even if something does surpass it in height, the Burj Khalifa will certainly go down in history. 

The United Arab Emirates has long been famous for the most interesting and unique structures in Dubai, but it continues to surprise tourists. For example, here they plan to build the rotating skyscraper Dynamic Tower. According to architect David Fisher's concept, all 80 floors of the building will rotate around their axis by 360 degrees. The Dynamic Tower will become the first structure capable of moving and changing shape.

The rotation of the floors will depend on the weather: the direction of the wind, the position of the sun in the sky and precipitation. And they will be driven by 79 wind turbines located between the floors, meaning that no additional power will be required for such an unusual structure to function. True, this project was developed quite a long time ago, but no one has gotten around to realizing it. It is possible that the world will never see the rotating skyscraper.