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World's Tallest Clock Tower in Makkah
July 22, 2011
The Makkah Clock Royal Tower will be the second tallest building in the world, standing at 577 meters high it will 59 meters taller than the Taipei Tower in Taiwan but still shorter than the Burj Dubai (or Burj Khalifa) which stands at a huge 828 meters.
The Mecca Clock tower is part of the Abaj Al-Bait (or Al-Bayt) project just 50M in front of the Grand Mosque in Makkah (Mecca), the site that all Muslims must face to pray 5 times per day, their holiest of shrines. The clock tower itself will be used for the call to prayer within the city of Makkah.
The Clock will be lit and visible from around 17 kilometers away at night and up to 12 km during the day, the Clock will be six times the size of Big Ben.
Makkah Clock Royal Tower Completionxs
The tower is due for completion now within 2011. As with all other projects in the region it has been plagued with many delays and has even had three fires within the towers the latest only being in March of 2011.
They were to have the clock up and running during Ramadan last year but failed to do so and things have gone very quiet!
Giant Mecca clock seeks to call time on Greenwich
For more than a century, a point on the top of a hill in south-east London has been recognised as the centre of world time and the official starting point of each new day.
Big Ben (L) and the Mecca Clock Tower (R) are now in competition to be recognised as the centre of time
But now the supremacy of Greenwich Mean Time is being challenged by a gargantuan new clock being built in Mecca, by which the world’s 1.5 billion Muslims could soon be setting their watches.
Due to start ticking as the faithful begin fasting during the month of Ramadan, the timepiece sits atop the Royal Mecca Clock Tower which dominates Islam’s holiest city.
It is at the heart of a vast complex funded by the Saudi government that will also house hotels, shopping malls and conference halls.
Bearing a striking resemblance to both St Stephen’s Tower, which houses the bell of Big Ben, and the Empire State Building, the Saudi upstart aims to outdo its revered British rival in every way.
The clock’s four faces are 151ft in diameter and will be illuminated by 2million LED lights along with huge Arabic script reading: “In the name of Allah”. The clock will run on Arabia Standard Time which is three hours ahead of GMT.
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