Abraj Al Bait

The Abraj Al-Bait Towers, also known as the Makkah Royal Clock Tower Hotel, is a government-owned megatall building complex in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. These towers are a part of the King Abdulaziz Endowment Project that strives to modernize the city in catering to its pilgrims. The central hotel building has the world's largest clock face and is the third tallest building and fourth tallest freestanding structure in the world. The building complex is metres away from the world's largest mosque and Islam's most sacred site, the Masjid al-Haram. The developer and contractor of the complex is the Saudi Binladin Group, the Kingdom's largest construction company. The complex was built after the demolition of the Ajyad Fortress, the 18th-century Ottoman citadel which stood atop a hill overlooking the Grand Mosque. The destruction of the fort in 2002 by the Saudi government sparked Turkish and international outcry.

Description

The tallest tower in the complex stands as the tallest building in Saudi Arabia, with a height of 601 metres (1,972 feet). Currently it is the fourth tallest freestanding structure in the world, surpassing Taipei 101 in Taipei, Taiwan, but shorter than the Shanghai Tower in Shanghai, China, the Tokyo Sky Tree in Tokyo, Japan and the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.