In the iconic city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia sits a complex of seven skyscraper hotels, which forms part of a project aimed to modernise the city for the millions of pilgrims that arrive each year.
The complex is 300 metres from the world’s largest mosque and Islam’s most sacred site, the Great Mosque of Mecca.
The central hotel tower, which is the Makkah Clock Royal Tower, is the fourth-tallest building and sixth-tallest freestanding structure in the world.
Constructed at an estimated cost of £12.6bn it is one of the most expensive buildings ever constructed and is about 35 times the size of Big Ben.
Construction firms from over ten different countries worked on the skyscraper, including a German firm, which designed the clock. However, because of its location in Mecca many of the engineers and architects could not visit the site as only Muslims are allowed into the sacred city.
In an impressive commitment to the project, some of the construction team, including glazing experts from Poland and Germany, converted to Islam to work on the project in person.
Every year, up to three million Muslims travel to Mecca to complete the Hajj, which involves completing the Hajj circle around the Ka’bah seven times. This ancient ritual is one that every Muslim must complete at least once in their lifetime.
The hotel was originally supposed to be only 450 metres high – which would still have made it the tallest building in the world at its construction in 2002. The height was then increased to 600 metres.
“Burj Khalifa was not built yet. It was also in planning, and they, of course, once it was clear that this tower would be 600 metres, they raised theirs to 800 metres and took the record for that one,” explained Mustafa Rasch, CEO of SL Rasch and former site manager of the Makkah Royal Clock Tower to The B1M.
The complex was built after the demolition of the Ajyad Fortress, an 18th-century Ottoman citadel on top of a hill overlooking the Grand Mosque. The Saudi government’s destruction of the historically significant site in 2002 sparked an outcry and a strong reaction from Turkey.
The tower’s four-faced clock is visible from 16 miles away and is the largest worldwide, surpassing the Cevahir Mall clock in Istanbul.
Each clock’s four faces measure 43 metres in diameter and are illuminated by two million LED lights, with four oriented edges just above the clock alongside huge Arabic script readings on each side.
