Tallest to come. Jeddah Tower, Saudi Arabia
Already towering above the tower cranes (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)
Here it is, the bit you’ve been waiting for, when we start to stray into silly territory: the world’s first one kilometre high tower! Only, it’s not so silly when you consider that it’s due for completion by 2020.
The original aim was for the tower to reach a mile into the Saudi Arabian sky, but unfortunately soil quality was deemed too poor for such an effort, and the kilometre mark had to be settled for instead.
Designed to look like a great plant of the desert, shooting upwards to symbolise Saudi’s future, it will also be intended to add further prominence to Jeddah’s status as the gateway to the pilgrimage centre of Mecca.
Indeed, as with other similarly vast structures, the Jeddah Tower’s intent is not to be profitable entirely on its own, but rather to stimulate growth in the area that surrounds it: who wouldn’t want to live next to the tallest structure in the world?