The Clock Towers

Overview

The Clock Towers

native name	أبراج الساعة
native name lang	ar
highest prev	Kingdom Centre
highest start	2012
highest region	Saudi Arabia
location	Mecca
antenna spire	93 m‡R1R‡‡R2R‡
floor count	120‡R3R‡ (Mecca Royal Clock Tower)
elevator count	96 (Mecca Royal Clock Tower with mall included)
construction start date	2002
completion date	2011
opening date	2012
location country	Saudi Arabia
cost	US$15 billion‡R4R‡
building type	Mixed use: Hotel, Residential
architectural style	Postmodern New Classical
architectural	607 m‡R5R‡
tip	607 m‡R5R‡
top floor	494 m‡R6R‡
roof	508 m‡R1R‡‡R2R‡
material	Main structural system: reinforced concrete (lower part), steel/concrete composite construction, steel construction (upper part); cladding: glass, marble, natural stone, carbon-/glass-fibre-reinforced plastic
observatory	484.4 m‡R6R‡
floor area	Tower: 310638 m2 Development: 1575815 m2‡R6R‡ (389.4 acres)
architect	SL Rasch GmbH and Dar Al-Handasah Architects
structural engineer	SL Rasch GmbH and Dar Al-Handasah
main contractor	Saudi Binladin Group
website	https://theclocktowers.com

The Clock Towers (, formerly known as Abraj al-Bait ) is a government-owned hotel complex with seven skyscraper hotels in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. These towers are part of the King Abdulaziz Endowment Project that aims to modernize the city in catering to its pilgrims. The central hotel tower, which is the Mecca Royal Clock Tower, is the fourth-tallest building and sixth-tallest freestanding structure in the world.[7] According to Guinness World Records, the Mecca Royal Clock Tower is the tallest clock tower in the world, and the complex of seven buildings comprise the world's second most expensive building.[8] The clock faces are the largest in the world, and the top four floors of the clock tower house the Clock Tower Museum.[9]

The building complex is 300 m away from the world's largest mosque and Islam's most sacred site, the Great Mosque of Mecca.[10]

Description

The tallest tower in the complex is the tallest building in Saudi Arabia, at 601 m and a total surface area of 32,000 square meters. It is the sixth-tallest freestanding structure in the world, surpassing the Ping An Finance Centre in Shenzhen, China but shorter than the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, UAE, the Merdeka 118 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, the One World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan, New York City, the Tokyo Skytree in Tokyo, Japan, the Zifeng Tower in Nanjing, Jiangsu, China, the Shanghai Tower in Shanghai, China, the CN Tower in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and the Canton Tower in Guangzhou, China.

The site of the complex is across the piazza to the south from the main entrance (King Abdul-Aziz Gate) to the Masjid al Haram mosque, which houses the Kaaba. It accommodates worshippers visiting the Kaaba. The tallest tower in the complex also contains a five-star hotel, operated by Fairmont Hotels and Resorts, to help provide lodging for the millions of pilgrims that travel to Mecca annually to participate in the Hajj.

In addition, The Clock Towers has a five-story shopping mall (The Clock Towers Shopping Center) and a parking garage capable of holding over a thousand vehicles.

The building was planned to be 734 m tall in 2006. In 2009, it was published that the final height would be 601 m. The complex was built by the Saudi Binladin Group, Saudi Arabia's largest construction company. The façade was constructed by Premiere Composite Technologies, and the clock by German tower clock manufacturer PERROT GmbH & Co. KG Turmuhren und Läuteanlagen. Because of its location in Mecca, non-Muslim members of the construction team were not allowed to visit the site, and some specialists from Poland and Germany converted to Islam to be able to do so.[13] According to the Saudi Ministry of Religious Endowments, the overall project cost US$15 billion.

Clock

There are clock faces on all four side of the main hotel tower. The total height of the clock is 57 m, situated above the media displays under the clock faces. At 43 ×, these are the largest in the world. The roof of the clock is 450 m above the ground, making it the world's most elevated architectural clock. A spire has been added on top of the clock giving it a total height of 601 m. Behind the clock faces, there is an astronomy exhibition. In the spire base and the iron-covered floors (The Jewel) there is a scientific center that is used to sight the moon at the beginning of the Islamic months, and to operate an atomic clock that controls the tower clock faces.

List of component towers

Features

The building is topped by a four-faced clock, visible from 25 km away. The clock is the highest in the world at over 400 m above the ground, surpassing the Allen-Bradley clock tower in Milwaukee. The clock faces are the largest in the world, surpassing the Cevahir Mall clock in Istanbul.

Each of the clock's four faces measures 43 m in diameter and are illuminated by 2 million LED lights, with four oriented edges, just above the clock alongside huge Arabic script reading: "God is [the] greatest" on the north and south faces and on the west and east "There is no god but Allah. Muhammad is the messenger of God." Four golden domes on pillars on all the corners are also present. The same as the Saudi flag, fitted at the top of the clock, flash to signal Islam's five-time daily prayers. On special occasions such as new year, 21,000 green and white xenon bulbs and LED lamps during the call to the five prayers times of the day. On special occasions, 40 beacon lights create lighting effects. In addition, strong lasers throw their rays 30 kilometers into the sky. The clock's four faces are covered with 98 million pieces of glass mosaics. The Saudi coat of arms is displayed at the center of each clock behind the dials. The minute hand is 23 m long, while the hour hand is 18 m long.

There were reports that the clock would be set to Mecca Time, in an attempt to replace the IERS Reference Meridian as the prime meridian for global time keeping, but the clock is set to Arabia Standard Time (UTC+03:00).

Spire

The spire has an eight-story glass-covered base (The Jewel) which belongs to a scientific center having its own small exhibition, another observation deck at 484 m. The highest floor in The Jewel is the Control Tower Floor, which was planned to be used for controlling air traffic in the sky above Mecca (mainly helicopters, as airplanes are not allowed near Mecca). However, this was skipped for technical reasons and the future usage is not clear yet. Above from The Jewel, the spire has only technical installations for sound, light, and other infrastructure and eventually the last viewing deck and the crescent above it. The crescent is 21 m in diameter, has two regular floors with living areas, a prayer room in the center of the crescent[19][20] and a few service floors and rooms.

The crescent was constructed in Dubai in April 2011. It is made of fiberglass-backed mosaic gold, and it weighs up to 35 tonnes. It cost 90 million United Arab Emirates dirhams and took three months to build.

The minaret and its base have loudspeakers which broadcast prayer calls to a distance of 7 km away and across an area of approximately 160 km2.

The Clock Towers

Description

Clock

List of component towers

Features

Spire

Incidents

Construction fires

Controversy

Gallery

See also

External links

References