Abraj Al Bait Towers

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Abraj Al Bait Towers
Mecca Royal Clock Tower Hotel
Abraj Al Bait Towers
Basic data
Place: Saudi ArabiaSaudi Arabia Mecca , Saudi Arabia
Construction time : 2004–2012
Status : Built
Architectural style : Postmodern
Architect : Dar al-Handasah Shair & Partners
Use / legal
Usage : hotel
Apartments : 858 hotel suites
Owner : Saudi Binladin Group
Technical specifications
Height : 601 m
Height to the top: 601 m
Top floor: 558 m
Rank (height) : 3rd place (world)
1st place (Saudi Arabia)
Floors : 120
Elevators : 94
Usable area : 1.575 million m²
Building material : Structure: reinforced concrete (below), steel composite construction , steel (above);
Facade: glass , marble , stone , carbon fiber reinforced plastic

The Abraj Al Bait Towers ( Arabic أبراج البيت, DMG Abrāǧ al-Bayt ) are a group of high-rise buildings with a central skyscraper , the Mecca Royal Clock Tower Hotel , in Mecca , Saudi Arabia . It stands right next to the Holy Mosque , which contains the Kaaba , the Muslim Holy of Holies. At 601 meters and 120 floors, the skyscraper became the second tallest building in the world after the significantly higher Burj Khalifa in Dubai (828 meters) after reaching its final height in July 2011 . The building is now the third tallest in the world after the Burj Khalifa and the 632 meter high Shanghai Tower . After its completion at the end of 2012, a luxury hotel of the Fairmont Company was opened.

Architecture and description

Architecturally, the main tower quotes the clock tower of Big Ben and is crowned by a long, thick point with a crescent moon at the top. The top of the building is accessible via a viewing platform at a height of 558 meters, which is higher than that of the Burj Khalifa (555.70 meters), but not as high as that of the record-holder Shanghai Tower at 561 meters. Up to a height of around 347 meters, the building consists of a reinforced concrete structure , above which steel composite construction or steel construction was continued.

Initially the tower was supposed to be 485 meters high, later this was increased to 591 meters. In July 2010, the final height of 601 meters was announced.

The extremely compact building complex with over a million square meters of floor space was built to accommodate the many Muslim pilgrims who come to the mosque and holy places in Mecca; when the facility is fully occupied, over 30,000 people are accommodated there. The cost of construction was an estimated $ 15 billion.

The hotel tower is crowned by the largest clock in the world. The dials on all four sides of the tower have a diameter of 43 meters. They are illuminated by two million LED lights. The design is designed to be able to read the time up to eight kilometers away. The dials consist of a glass mosaic with more than 90 million individual parts, on which the coat of arms of Saudi Arabia can be seen. The minute hands made of carbon fiber reinforced plastic, which can be walked on to replace defective lighting elements, are 23 meters long, 3.5 meters wide and weigh 7.5 tons. The hour hands are 17 meters long. The clock is equipped with a solar drive. Four golden domes are on the pillars at the corners. A further 21,000 white and green lights form the flag of Saudi Arabia above the dials . They blink five times a day at Islamic prayer times.

Museum areas and conference rooms are located in the ten-story area of ​​the clock. The media technology Walkable Skyglobe (accessible celestial globe) is installed there. It consists of two spheres with a diameter of six meters with the open side at a distance of 1.8 meters from one another. You can walk across the globe via a footbridge. The insides of the two hemispheres are played with by twelve projectors.

The complex is owned by the Saudi Binladin Group . The architecture firm Dar al-Handasah Shair & Partners was responsible for the conception and design of the post-modern style complex. The clock and the spire of the main tower (from a height of 450 meters) were designed and built by SL-Rasch GmbH under the direction of architect Mahmoud Bodo Rasch .

Construction work

Preparations for the construction of the towers began with a scandal criticized around the world: in the spring of 2002, the late 18th century Ottoman Adschjad fortress was demolished and most of the Bulbul Hill on which it stood was leveled around the area to clear for the Abraj Al Bait Towers.

The groundbreaking ceremony for the complex took place in 2004. Construction of the main tower above ground began in 2006. In summer 2010, the construction site had reached a height of around 450 meters.

In July and August 2010, the oversized clock was installed on the tower. On August 10th, this started testing. It is the largest clock that has ever been attached to a tower. The clock was built by the Perrot company from Calw in Swabia . The Çimtaş company from Istanbul was commissioned for the on-site assembly because Mecca only allows Muslims access. In addition, Perrot commissioned a Moroccan engineer to look after and maintain the largest tower clock in the world.

At the end of August, the main tower reached a height of 508 meters, overtaking Taipei 101 in Taiwan. The final height of 601 meters was reached on July 6, 2011 with the installation of the last component at the top. The crescent is 23 meters in diameter and includes a prayer room for VIPs.

The last construction work was completed in December 2012.

See also

Web links

Commons : Abraj Al Bait Towers  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Mecca Royal Clock Tower Hotel , CTBUH
  2. ^ Project description , Mayr Ludescher Partner
  3. ↑ Dubai Dispatch: Pilgrim's Progress ( Memento from April 11, 2013 in the web archive archive.today )
  4. ^ Description of the tower clock on Perrot's website
  5. ^ German handicrafts for Muslim pilgrims ( Memento from January 6, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) dtj, December 20, 2012, accessed on April 14, 2013
  6. ↑ Sunday Update, April 14, 2013, page 4
  7. ↑ macom.de: Royal Clock Tower, Mecca ( Memento from February 20, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
  8. ↑ Architect , SL-Rasch
  9. ↑ Skyscraper project in Mecca: Now it’s a gigantic one
  10. ↑ Ajyad endowment project gets go-ahead , Abdul Wahab Bashir, ARAB NEWS , December 26, 2001, accessed January 17, 2017
  11. ↑ Historic Makkah fortress demolished , Arab News, January 9, 2002, accessed January 17, 2017
  12. ↑ Saudi's hit back over Mecca castle , BBC News , January 9, 2002, accessed January 17, 2019
  13. ↑ Graphic with photo of the construction site including height information , Skyscraperpage forum
  14. ↑ World's biggest clock begins ticking in Mecca , af.reuters.com
  15. ↑ Video. Retrieved December 11, 2019 .
  16. ↑ Young Bieler puts the crescent moon on the highest minaret Der Bund, July 25, 2011, accessed on April 14, 2013

Coordinates: 21 ° 25 ′ 8 ″  N , 39 ° 49 ′ 35 ″  E