Abraj Al Bait Clock Tower

Abraj Al Bait Clock Tower

The Abraj Al-Bait (Arabic: ابراج البيت‎ "Towers of the House (of God, i.e. the Kaaba)") could be a government-owned megamall advanced of seven edifice hotels in Mecca, Asian nation. These towers area unit a neighborhood of the King Abdulaziz Endowment Project that strives to modernize town in line of work to its pilgrims. The central hotel tower, the Makkah Royal Clock Tower, A Fairmont Hotel, has the world's largest clock face and is the third-tallest building and fifth-tallest freestanding structure in the world.

The complex is metres aloof from the world's largest house of God and Islam's most sacred website, the good house of prayer of Mecca. The developer and contractor of the complex is the Saudi Binladin Group, the Kingdom's largest construction company. It is the world's most expensive building with the total cost of construction equaling US$15 billion. The advanced was engineered once the demolition of the Ajyad fort, the 18th-century Ottoman citadel on top of a hill overlooking the Grand Mosque. The destruction of the historically significant site in 2002 by the Saudi government sparked international outcry and a strong response from Turkey.

·       Description

The tallest tower within the advanced is that the tallest building in Asian nation, with a height of 601 metres (1,972 feet). Currently it is the fifth-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 Tokyo Skytree in capital of Japan, Japan, the Shanghai Tower in Shanghai, China, and the Canton Tower in Guangzhou, China.

The site of the advanced is found across the place to the south from the most entrance (King Abdul-Aziz Gate) to the house of God al Haram house of God, that homes the Kaaba. To accommodate worshippers visiting the Kaaba, the Abraj Al-Bait Towers has 2 massive prayer rooms (one for men, one for women) capable of holding more than 10,000 people. The tallest tower within the advanced conjointly contains a five-star edifice, 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 Abraj Al-Bait Towers features a five-story store (the Abraj Al Bait Mall) and a parking garage capable of holding over 1000 vehicles.

The building was planned to be 734 m (2,408 ft) tall in 2006. In 2009, it had been revealed that the ultimate height would be 601 m (1,972 ft). The advanced was engineered by the Saudi Bonaldis cluster, Saudi Arabia's largest construction company. The tallest building within the advanced (from a height of 450 m (1,480 ft) up until the tip) was designed by the German architect Mahmoud Bodo Rasch and his firm Shining Path Rasch GmbH. The façade was constructed by Premiere Composite Technologies, the clock by German tower clock manufacturer PERROT GmbH & Co. KG Turmerone und Läuteanlagen.According to the Saudi Ministry of Religious Endowments, the project cost US$15 billion.

·       Clock

The project uses clock faces for every aspect of the most edifice tower. The highest residential (penthouse) floor stands at 370 m (1,210 ft), just below the media displays under the clock faces. These are with 43 m × 43 m (141 ft × 141 ft) the largest in the world. The roof of the clocks is 450 m (1,480 ft) above the ground, making them the world's most elevated architectural clocks. A 151-metre-tall (495 ft) tower has been added on prime of the clock giving it a complete height of 601 m (1,972 ft). Behind the clock faces there's Associate in Nursing natural philosophy Exhibition. In the spire base and the glass covered floors (The Jewel) there is a scientific center which is used to sight the moon in the beginnings of the Islamic Months Associate in Nursing to work a timekeeper that is steering the tower clocks.

·       Features

The building is flat-top by a four-faced clock, visible from twenty-five kilometers (16 miles) away. The clock is that the highest within the world at over four hundred m (1,300 ft) above the ground. The clock faces area unit the most important within the world, surpassing the Caviar Mall clock in Istanbul.

Each of the clock's four faces measures forty three m (141 ft) in diameter and square measure lighted by two million diode 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 not any god however Allah. Muhammad is the messenger of God.". Four golden domes on pillars on all the corners also are gift. Another 21,000 white and inexperienced colored lights, the same as the Saudi Flag, fitted at the top of the clock, flash to signal Islam's five-time daily prayers, and are visible as way as thirty klicks (19 mi) away. On special occasions like New Year, 16 bands of vertical lights shoot 10 km (6.2 mi) up into the sky. The clock's four faces square measure lined with ninety-eight million items of glass mosaics. The Saudi coat of arms is displayed at the center of every clock behind the dials. The minute hand is 23 m (75 ft) long, while the hour hand is 17 m (56 ft) long.

A (nonpublic) viewing deck is located 558 m (1,831 ft) above the ground, right under the crescent. There is also a public viewing deck at the base of the clocks at 393 meters’ height.

There were rumors that the clock would be set to local Mecca Time, in an attempt to replace the IERS reference meridian (successor of the former Greenwich meridian) as the prime meridian for global time keeping, but the clock is set to Arabia Standard Time (UTC+03:00).