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Abraj Al Bait

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Abraj Al Bait

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Also known as Mecca Royal Hotel Clock Tower, Abraj Al-Bait Towers

building complex in Mecca, Saudi Arabia

AI overview

Abraj Al Bait is a large building complex located in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, near the city's most sacred religious site. The complex is notable for its prominent architecture and serves as a significant landmark in one of Islam's holiest cities.

AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.

Wikidata facts

Instance of
clock tower
Located in
Mecca
Area
1500000
Owned by
Saudi Arabia
Official website
theclocktowers.com
Image
അബ്രാജ് അൽ-ബൈത്ത് ടവർ.jpg
Height
601
Significant event
conflagration
Show 14 more facts
main building contractor
Saudi Binladin Group
floors above ground
120
Commons category
Abraj Al Bait Towers
structural engineer
Dar Al-Handasah
inception
2012-00-00
date of official opening
2011-00-00
architectural style
postmodern architecture
number of elevators
96
adjacent structure or building
Al-Masjid Al-Haram
structure replaces
Ajyad Fortress
capital cost
15000000000
inspired by
Big Ben
name in native language
أبراج الساعة
Sources (4)

via Wikidata · CC0

~10 min read

Encyclopedic overview

The Clock Towers (Arabic: أبراج الساعة, romanized: ʾAbrāj as-Sāʿaẗ, lit. 'Towers of the Clock', formerly known as Abraj al-Bait Arabic: أبراج البيت, romanized: ʾAbrāj al-Bayt, lit. 'Towers of the House') 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. 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. The clock faces are the largest in the world, and the top four floors of the clock tower house the Clock Tower Museum.

The building complex is 300 metres (980 ft) away from the world's largest mosque and Islam's most sacred site, the Great Mosque of Mecca. The developer and contractor of the complex is the Saudi Binladin Group, the Kingdom's largest construction company. The total cost of construction totaled US$15 billion. The complex was built after the demolition of the Ajyad Fortress, 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 an outcry and a strong reaction from Turkey.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Abraj Al Bait” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

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