The World's Tallest Structure

The moment we’ve all been waiting for is here… There was a mad rush of traffic that started early in the day as residents of the city rushed to the Down Town Burj Dubai area for what promised to be an eventful and memorable day.

Memorable it was… The Burj Dubai has been renamed the Burj Khalifa and it arrived amidst a spectacular fireworks display and to the noise of approximately 60,000 guests in the Burj Khalifa area.

Sitting atop his throne, HH Sheikh Mohammed, the Ruler of Dubai, couldn’t help but break into a smile and he certainly seemed impressed, as well he should be. Amidst all the gloom and the negative news, Dubai is back on the map.

So, let’s look at some of the numbers:

• 10 m/s is the speed of the elevators
• 57 elevators at the tower
• 162 floors high
• 1,325 days ago excavation works started on the Burj
• 12,000 Number of workers on site at the peak of construction
• 60,000 number of guests at the opening
• 946,000 liters of water will be used by the Burj everyday
• 2,000,000 people watched the opening
• 20,000,000,000 dollars the total cost of the Burj Khalifa complex

There’s the myth of Babu Sassi, the brave man from Southern India who operated the crane at top of the tower and who was said to have lived in the cab because it would take too long for him to come down!

Okay, I’m just trying to delay the inevitable… There is only one thing that you’re all itching to find out, the tower’s height. So, without further ado, the magic number is 828 meters, the height of the tallest tower and man-made structure in the world…

Congratulations Dubai, and a Happy 2010!