Dubai inaugurated Burj Dubai, the world’s tallest building, with a spectacular display of sound, light, water and fireworks on Monday. Burj Dubai, a development of Emaar properties, stands at more than 800 meters (2,625 ft) high with 160 storeys, making it the tallest man-made structure ever built. “This is not just a building that’s a little bit bigger than other buildings. It’s much bigger,” Christian Koch, Director of International Studies at the Gulf Research Center in Dubai told The Media Line. “Everybody will know about it. This is certainly going to represent the status of Dubai and the Arab Gulf as a whole for many years.”

Burj Dubai in numbers:

  • The spire of the tower can be seen from 95 kilometers away.
  • The building will include 160 luxury hotel rooms and suites.
  • During construction, concrete was pumped vertically to a height of 605 meters, breaking a world record for concrete pumping.
  • The main service elevator travels a distance of 504 meters.
  • The building will include 49 office floors and 1,044 residential apartments.
  • Burj Dubai has 57 elevators.
  • It has 3,000 underground parking spaces.
  • The tower’s service lift has a capacity of lifting 5,500 kilograms.
  • 31,400 metric tons of steel reinforcing bar was used in the construction.
  • 28,261 glass cladding panels make up the exterior of the tower and its two annexes
  • 15,000 liters of water were collected from the tower’s cooling equipment and will be used for landscaping irrigation.
  • The floor of the tower houses the 900-foot-long Dubai Fountain, the world’s tallest operating fountain.
  • During the peak of construction there were 12,000 workers on site.
  • The price of office space at Burj Dubai will be around $4,000 per square foot. (Courtesy : jpost.com)