When in Dubai, it’s hard to imagine that this place, now filled with rows and rows of towering skyscrapers, was once just mere sand and desert. The development of the cosmopolitan city has occurred in almost the blink of an eye, and brought with it one of the world’s greatest architectural achievements: Burj Khalifa.
Thanks to the United Arab Emirates, the Arab world has regained the prestige of being home to the world’s tallest man-made structure. Having lost the title in 1311, when the spire of Lincoln Cathedral first surpassed the Great Pyramid of Giza, the title is back in the Arab world thanks to Dubai’s steel-ribbed, glass-clad, 828-meter (2,717-foot) megalith.
For the opening ceremony on Jan. 4, a massive fireworks display inaugurated the tower, which is more than 300 meters taller than the previous record-holder in Taipei. The Burj Khalifa also boasts the world’s highest swimming pool and mosque.
It was originally named Burj Dubai (Dubai Tower) but was changed in honor of the president of the United Arab Emirates and ruler of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al-Nahyan.
The Chicago-based firm of Skidmore, Owings and Merrell, designed the masterpiece, which is inspired not only by minarets and desert flowers, but also by Frank Lloyd Wright’s 1956 plans for the Illinois Sky-City in Chicago. Now the tower stands in the new city center, a monument to the fusion of Arab ambition and modern technology.
Emerging near the summit after an ear-popping elevator ride to its 124th floor observatory deck, the view from the top tells the story of a city striving to be mega-metropolitan. From above, you can witness the past, present and future of Dubai in the desert that surrounds it, the skyscrapers that fill it, and in the cranes and construction building of what is yet to come.
Burj Khalifa in numbers
95: distance in kilometers at which its spire can be seen
504: rise in meters of its main service elevator
57: number of elevators
49: number of office floors
1,044: number of residential apartments
900: length in feet of the fountain at the foot of the tower, the world’s tallest performing fountain
28,261: number of glass cladding panels on the exterior of the tower
