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Monday, October 4, 2010
Views of the Makkah Royal Clock Tower
World's Tallest Clock Tower
The
Makkah Clock Tower will be the second tallest building in the world,
standing at 577 meters high it will 59 meters taller than the Taipei
Tower in Taiwan but still shorter than the Burj Dubai (or Burj Khalifa)
which stands at a huge 828 meters.
The Clock tower is part of the
Abaj Al-Bait (or Al-Bayt) project just 50M in front of the Grand Mosque
in Makkah (Mecca), the site that all Muslims must face to pray 5 times
per day, their holiest of shrines. The clock tower itself will be used
for the call to prayer within the city of Makkah.
The Clock
will be lit and visible from around 17 kilometers away at night and up
to 12 km during the day, the Clock will be six times the size of Big
Ben.
Abrj Al-Bait Development and the King Abdul Aziz Endowment Project
This
project is one of the world's biggest development projects covering
over 1.4 million square meters. It will have over 6000 units of housing
and have seven towers forming the central area. The Abrj Al-Bait towers
will house a 3000 room hotel complex, most of the rooms overlooking the
Haram with views of the holy Kaaba.
Lunar Observatory and Islamic Museum at the Makkah Clock Royal Tower
In
addition to the worlds largest clock tower to call all muslims to
prayer the development will also boast a lunar observation center which
will be used for sighting the moon for holy months, and an Islamic
Museum to protect the heritage of Muslims for future generations.
The Tower will be equipped to shoot 16 beams of light 10km into the night sky on special occasions.
Makkah Time vs Greenwich Mean Time at the Clock Royal Tower
Greenwich
Mean Time (GMT) has long been the time the time standard that we have
all set out clocks to, however the Islamic scholars are now stating that
as Makkah is the true center of the world we should all move over to
"Makkah Time".
So watch this space to see if the worlds tallest clock tower also becomes the time keeper for the whole world!
