The largest building in the world is the Burj Khalifa. Burj Dubai (Khalifa)

The Burj Khalifa building has broken all world height records. The tower was built in the crisis year of 2010. It bears the name of the UAE President, Khalifa, who allocated a huge amount for the construction of the skyscraper. Before this, the building was simply called "Burj Dubai". Translated from Arabic it means "Dubai Tower". The Burj Khalifa skyscraper, whose height is crazy, has 160 floors. On the 124th there is an observation deck from which you can see the whole of Dubai at a glance.

Burj Khalifa skyscraper: height

This building broke all world records in height. It surpassed the Empire State in New York. Its height is 443 m. The Petronas Twin Towers in Malaysia are also inferior to the skyscraper (452 m). The Russian Ostankino Tower, 452 m high, was also left behind. In terms of housing stock, the first place in the world before the construction of the legendary Dubai skyscraper belonged to the Taipei 101 skyscraper located in Taiwan. The height of the Burj Khalifa skyscraper is 828 m.

Record construction time

Despite the crisis and financial difficulties, construction was carried out at a record pace. On average, two floors were expelled every seven days. Not a single tower crane could cope with delivering concrete to such a huge height in the required quantity. The solution was pumped up the pipes under high pressure. Construction of the skyscraper did not stop, even when other projects were suspended due to lack of funds. The workers received good wages. Many people dreamed of working here.

Building design

The best specialists from Korea, the USA and Southern Europe worked on the project. The pride of the creators is elevators that operate at a speed of 40 km/h. With one transfer, the highest point of the tower can be reached in two minutes. The service elevator goes to the very top.

Autonomous provision of a skyscraper

The outside of the building is partly covered with solar panels. There is also a wind turbine here. The energy they generate is enough for uninterrupted 24-hour power supply. Technical components and television equipment are located in a two-hundred-meter spire, which is made of metal.

The tallest building on the planet houses cinemas, swimming pools, residential apartments, shopping centers, hotels and much more. Next to the tower is one of the largest musical fountains in the world.

The opening ceremony

It took place on January 4, 2010. 6 thousand guests were invited to the celebration. The ceremony was postponed several times due to the difficult financial situation. There were a lot of high-ranking guests from 10 countries.

Ticket price for the tallest tower on the planet

The entrance to the observation deck is on floor G. You need to go through the huge Dubai Mall. If you don't know where to go, you can simply walk up to any passerby and name the object. You can also follow the signs. As soon as you enter you will see a large hall. Here is a model of the tower.

It is better to purchase a ticket to the observation deck in advance on the official website. You will be sent a voucher, which you will need to exchange at a special counter for a ticket.

Ticket prices:

adult (from 13 years old) costs approximately $35;
children's ticket (from 4 to 13 years old) - $25;
urgent - $110.

Visitors are allowed into the tower every half hour. There is security at the entrance. Purchases will have to be left in the storage room. You can take your camera and tablet with you, but you will be asked to hand over your laptop. Also, roller skating, weapons and glass bottles are not allowed here. It is prohibited to film the security inspection process. On the way to the observation deck, I will show you all stages of construction from the monitor. The skyscraper will grow right before your eyes. 12 people are allowed into the elevator hall. Visitors do not get sick in the elevators of the Burj Khalifa tower: the height, according to guests, does not affect their well-being in any way.

The view from the observation deck is extraordinary, since the windows here are completely panoramic. The majestic buildings of Dubai, which seem huge on the ground, look miniature from here. Now you need to soak in the moment and enjoy the beauty that opens from the Burj Khalifa. The height at which the observation deck is located is 452 meters. From here you can see the famous symbol of the UAE - the Burj Al Arab hotel. Behind it is the man-made island of Palm Jumeirah. At the observation deck you can buy souvenirs to remember this amazing place. Inside the skyscraper there are 9 hotels, a whole system of fountains, 304 hotels, 2957 parking spaces, 904 apartments.

Height that requires care

The height of the Burj Khalifa seems impossible, but despite this, the building should look perfect. There are 26,000 glass panels designed to sparkle. In order to monitor the cleanliness of the building, special rails are attached to its outer side, along which 12 cars move. The weight of one is 13 tons. 36 people were hired to manage the equipment.

For general development, of course, it will be useful to find out what the height of the attraction in question is. "Burj Khalifa" (in meters the figure is impressive - 828) is simply amazing! But it’s better to try and find an opportunity to get to Dubai to enjoy the view from the world’s tallest skyscraper.

Would you like to touch the clouds? I think so, since you opened this article Burj Khalifa attracts many tourists to Dubai. Sometimes they go there just for her sake. Even just tourists, not romantics or dreamers, cannot ignore the famous tower. It will be an eyesore, feeling like a mirage in the light haze of the hot Dubai air.

Yes, its height is amazing, but did you think that this is where its unusualness ends? After all, everyone is just talking about height? Let's figure out whether it's worth spending money on expensive tickets and how to save money if you decide to climb it.

In this article we look at:

Burj Khalifa: what's special about it?

In 2018, the Burj Khalifa (aka Burj Dubai) is still considered the tallest building in the history of mankind - 828 meters and 163 floors. Tourists cannot go up to the very top floor. The highest level available to tourists is located on the 148th floor - the observation deck “at the Top Sky”. But most tourists limit themselves to visiting the “at the Top” site on the 124th–125th floor. Why?

The Burj Khalifa Tower is, first of all, a business center with offices and apartments, almost half of which are empty. Neither foreigners nor locals want to live behind glass and concrete. The infrastructure of the tower is well developed.

Outdoor area At the Top

On the 1st to 39th floors there is one of the best business hotels in the world - Armani 5*, the design and interior of which was personally developed by Giorgio Armani.

At.mosphere on the 122nd floor is far from the most sophisticated restaurant in Dubai in terms of interiors and cuisine. The main feature is the panoramic views of the city, and that’s why they don’t come here to dine. But more on that later.

Ideas off topic. You can find out what prices are now for tours to the Emirates on the websites of online travel agencies:

They are no different from ordinary travel agencies, except that they do not hide the availability of tours with promotions and promotional rates, which are not profitable for offline travel agencies to sell.

In addition, Burj Dubai broke records for the highest swimming pool (level 76), nightclub (144) and mosque (158). All this beauty is served by 57 elevators, only one of which rises directly from the first floor to the last.

Don't forget that the Burj Khalifa is like any other public place.

Ticket prices and how to save

It doesn’t matter as part of an excursion or on your own, you have to pay to climb the Burj Khalifa. Many people find the cost of admission unreasonably high. The cheapest excursion to Burj Dubai (level 124–125 at sunset) that I found cost $65 per person. This price includes the climb to the observation deck, WiFi in the tower and binoculars.

During the excursion, everything is clear - tickets will be issued for you. When inspecting on your own, you need to buy a ticket yourself on the website tickets.atthetop.ae, preferably at home. Tickets at the entrance to the tower are significantly more expensive than through the website. Tickets can be purchased no earlier than 30 days in advance. For upcoming dates, prices are significantly higher than in 4 or more days.

At the foot of the Burj Khalifa are the famous “singing fountains” and the Dubai Mall

Note! Tickets on the site must be paid with your personal card! That is, the one on which your last and first name are written. Take it with you. When receiving tickets at the box office, along with an electronic printed confirmation, they may ask for the bank card with which the transaction took place and check your full name with your passport!

The entrance and ticket office to the Burj Khalifa are located, oddly enough, in the Dubai Mall on the GF floor (where the parking is). In the Dubai Mall, At the Top is indicated everywhere, so it’s possible to get lost, but it’s difficult. At the entrance to the tower you will be asked for tickets. If you purchased your tickets online, they will tell you where to pick them up.

When planning an excursion, be sure to take into account the weather forecast. In fog or a dust storm it is unlikely that you will be able to enjoy the views. When getting up at sunset/dawn, take into account the time of sunset/dawn itself. And then there were incidents

Even though the Burj Khalifa does not participate in, I highly recommend checking it out. An ordinary average family of three saves at least 250 USD per week on food and entertainment with its help. .

At the Top, Burj Khalifa

The At the Top observation deck is located on floors 124 and 125. Ticket prices:

At the Top Ticket	from 09.00 to 15.30 and from 18.30 to 23:00	from 16.00 to 18.00
Adult from 12 years old	141 AED	221 AED
Children from 4 to 11.99 years	111 AED	181 AED
Children up to 4 years old	for free	for free

The cost of tickets depends on the time of rise (from 9:00 to 23:00, every half hour).

During the daytime they are the cheapest. As for me, there is nothing to do there during the day. The gray faded city does not make the right impression. The only advantage of a daytime visit is the absence of queues, and even then not always.

The time you stay inside doesn't matter. That is, you can buy a ticket for 11 am and spend the whole day on the observation deck. Nobody will kick you out. There's just not much to do there. There is no cafe/restaurant on the observation deck, there is not even anywhere to sit - everyone sits on the floor. As a result, tourists do not stay at the sites for more than two hours.

The best time to visit the tower is sunset hours (from 16:00 to 18:00). They are also the most expensive and popular - while waiting for the rise, guests of the tower can stand in line for an hour and a half. However, I recommend this particular time, so you will see both daytime Dubai and evening Dubai with its lights and fountain shows.

A small and logical life hack to save money - take the rise at 15:30. You will have to wait a long time, but the savings are not bad. I don’t recommend taking the latest evening time, but it’s still better than a purely “daytime” time. After seven or eight in the evening it is much more interesting to be down at the Fountains than at the tower.

At the Top, Burj Khalifa SKY

The SKY observation deck is located on the 148th floor. Cost of visit:

Ticket At the Top SKY	from 19:00 to 22:00	from 09:30 to 18:00
Adult from 12 years old	375 AED	530 AED
Children from 4 to 12 years old	375 AED	530 AED
Children up to 4 years old	for free	for free

For this money, guests of the tower have access to both the 148th floor and 125-124. However, you won’t be able to move between them without hindrance - first 148, then descending to 124–125. The time spent at the observation decks is not limited.

The features of this program include not only the height of the level, but also accompaniment by a tour guide + a welcome drink and cake in Lounge SKY. In addition, level 148 is more suitable for long waits - there are quite enough sofas and armchairs.

At the Top SKY is significantly smaller than the sites on levels 124–125, but there are not many people here.

The Lounge, Burj Khalifa

The world's tallest lounge opened in Burj Khalifa in February 2019. It is located on floors 152, 153 and 154, that is, almost 30 floors above the main observation deck At The Top and 4 above the SKY platform.

The Lounge is not an observation deck in the traditional sense, although the views are excellent and there is also an open area. This place is primarily created for a pleasant pastime and communication: guests are offered soft drinks, tea, coffee, champagne (in the evenings), as well as snacks and desserts. After sunset there are live music performances.

Prices are high, but if you have the money, it's worth a visit. Entrance tickets can also be purchased on the official website (prices per person, regardless of age):

Program	Time
Tea in the clouds	12:30 – 14:30	15:00 – 17:00
	AED 600	AED 600
Bubbly Sundowner	17:30 – 19:00
	AED 649
Cocktails under the stars	19:30 – 21:00	21:30 – 00:00
	AED 600	AED 600

Additional services and excursions

In addition to direct tickets to the observation decks, you can purchase excursions on the official website:

Dubai Ferry (boat trip from Marina to Shindaga, Bur Dubai) - from 50 AED;
Museum of History of the Emirates Etihad Museum - from 25 AED;
Dubai Fountain: evening ride on a traditional abra boat around the dancing fountains - 68.25 AED;
from a floating platform (Boardwalk) - from 20 AED;
At the Top (hereinafter referred to as ATT) at sunset + Boardwalk fountains - from 155 AED;
ATT + aquarium in Dubai Mall - from 190 AED;
ATT+ lunch at Armani Deli restaurant - from 295 AED;
ATT + dinner on the roof of The Burj Club restaurant overlooking the fountains - from 275 AED;
ATT at sunrise with breakfast (Fridays and Saturdays) - from 135 AED;
Fast track access to the At the Top observation deck - from 315 AED.

At.mosphere: restaurant and lounge

I often hear from tourists that instead of the Burj Khalifa observation decks, it is more profitable to visit the At.mosphere restaurant or lounge on the 122nd floor. In principle, I even agree, but with an amendment - it’s more profitable not in terms of money, but in terms of atmosphere.

Restaurant At.mosphere

This is a prestigious place for lunch with business partners or a romantic dinner. There are no “random” people here. To achieve this, At.mosphere not only has a strict dress code, but also a minimum order amount rule:

The Restaurant Atmosphere:

breakfast: set - 350 AED; a la carte - 200 AED;
lunch: 220 AED regardless of table location;
dinner: 880 AED for tables by the window, 580 AED for others.

Ideas off topic. It is more convenient to pay a deposit for a rented car and a deposit at a hotel abroad by credit card. The money on the card account will be “frozen”, but will not be written off, and therefore you will not have to pay interest on it! Moreover, in cases where there is no money, but you want to relax, paying for a tour with a credit card with a long grace period is much more profitable than taking out a short-term consumer loan.

At.mosphere Lounge:

lunch: 250 AED for tables by the window, unlimited for others;
afternoon tea: AED 515 for window tables, AED 440 for others.

In addition, there are restrictions on the age of guests. Lounge: from 12:00 to 17:00 children over 10 years old are allowed. From 17:00 to 02:00 over 21 years of age. Restaurant: breakfast - no age restrictions. Lunch and dinner - over 10 years.

As you can see, the amounts are substantial. But those who come here to “show off” and “for show” are far from poor people. Should observation decks be replaced by an At.mosphere restaurant or lounge? If funds allow, then I think it’s possible.

Is it worth going up to the Burj Khalifa observation decks themselves? As for me, you should only go up if you have “extra” money. Rarely is a tourist truly delighted with what he sees. For such a price of tickets, everyone expects something “Wow”, but somehow it doesn’t work out. Therefore, I shift the answer to you - I really don’t know whether you will like it or not

Work on the original and complex project began in January 2004. The tower was designed by the American company Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. Samsung C&T was selected as the general contractor.

Already at the end of September 2004, construction began and proceeded at a very high pace. Within a week, 1-2 floors were erected. The spire, which is 180 meters high, is made using metal structures.

This is a unique structure that has made Dubai famous throughout the world. Burj Khalifa was built using certain grades of concrete that can withstand temperatures of up to 50 degrees. Such concrete was laid only at night, and ice was added to the composition. In total, about 320,000 m3 of this composition were used, and more than 60,000 tons of steel reinforcement.

The construction of the Burj Khalifa (Dubai) cost a huge amount. The UAE spent $1.6 billion on the construction. It should be noted that this amount paid off already in the first year after the start of operation, thanks to the popularity of the structure. After all, not everyone, even the most influential and wealthy people in the world, was able to purchase apartments here. The price of one square meter reached 40 thousand dollars, and they were sold out even before construction was completed.

Design Features

The Burj Khalifa, which you see in this article, is equipped with a turbine that is rotated by the wind and generates autonomous electricity, and a special fire safety system allows the occupants of the tower to be evacuated if necessary in 32 minutes.

There are 57 elevators in the building. They move at a speed of 10 m/s. During construction, the climatic features of the UAE were taken into account. To reduce the risk of the structure swaying in the wind, it was given an asymmetrical shape. All guests who come to Dubai are amazed by the Burj Khalifa. On a tour of the skyscraper, tourists are told that special glass was used for the construction, which does not allow dust to pass through and completely reflects the rays of the sun.

Special membranes are installed in the floor, which aromatize and cool the air in the room. All this maintains a comfortable temperature, despite the unbearable heat outside.

Dubai, Burj Khalifa: description

We have already said that the skyscraper in the UAE is currently the tallest on Earth. in Dubai is 828 meters. This is a large-scale and innovative structure. It seems to pierce the sky and rush upward. For comparison, we can say that the famous London Big Ben is seven times lower than the Arab Tower.

Infrastructure

The vast territory houses a luxury hotel with 300 rooms, offices, 700 VIP-class apartments, a restaurant, parking for three thousand cars, shops of famous brands, gyms, swimming pools, spa centers, Jacuzzis, observation decks and even its own park, the size of 11 hectares. As you can see, this is a truly unique building, Burj Khalifa (Dubai). How many floors does it have? This question is probably of interest to many of our readers. The building has 160 floors.

The skyscraper has an asymmetrical shape, reminiscent of a stalagmite, which seems to grow from the bottom of a cave. Another feature of the unique building is that its foundation is not fixed in the ground as usual. It consists of 200 hanging piles, the length of which is 45 meters with a diameter of 1.5 meters.

Air and temperature

The air in the famous tower is not only fully air-conditioned, but also has its own scent, developed specifically for this building. It is fed into the tower through certain holes in the floor. The temperature in the building is maintained at + 18 °C.

Maintaining a stable temperature is achieved by using tinted thermal glass. It will take at least three months to clean all the glass in the building.

Electricity and water supply

How such a huge building is provided with water and electricity is of interest to many tourists who come to Dubai. Burj Khalifa has an autonomous power supply system. It consists of wind generators with turbines 60 meters long and huge solar panels. Their area is 15 thousand square meters. m.

The water supply system supplies the tower with approximately 945,000 liters of water daily through dedicated pipelines. Their length is 100 km. In addition, there is a special pipeline. Its length is 213 kilometers. Another 34 kilometers of pipes supply cold water for air conditioning.

Observation deck

The main panoramic platform is At the Top, which is located at 124,451.9 m). We recommend visiting it to everyone who happens to visit Dubai.

Excursions

You can visit the observation deck either independently, by purchasing a ticket at the ticket office located on the ground floor of the building, or as part of an excursion group. Before your visit, you can put things you don't need in storage rooms. Then be sure to go through a metal detector.

Here on the walls there is various information about the structure and popular quotes related to it. At the appointed time you will be shown to the elevators, but before that you will be photographed. In addition, on the way to the elevator you will see pictures and information about the tallest building in the world, the history of its creation, and the companies that took part in the construction. Access to the elevators, which are designed to transport tourists, is allowed in small groups. During the climb there is a beautiful light show accompanied by epic music. The rise takes only one minute.

And now you find yourself on the 124th floor of the building. From here you have a 360 degree view. Half of the site is located outdoors, the second part is indoors. Tourists who have already climbed to the observation deck believe that it should be visited at least 4 times: at dawn, during the day, at sunset and at night.

You are allowed 45 minutes to visit the site, but no one really keeps track of time, so you can stay there as long as you need to enjoy the magnificent scenery. A visit in the late evening or at night is attractive because you can see the musical fountains of Dubai from a great height. There is also a souvenir shop with T-shirts, cups and other paraphernalia. You can also take a photo and receive a photo. When you think you have seen everything you planned, go to the exit, and in a minute you will return from heaven to earth. Before leaving, a pretty girl will approach you and present you with an album with your photo against the backdrop of the picturesque Burj Khalifa.

The tallest building in the world is located in Dubai - it is a skyscraper Burj Khalifa. Height of the Burj Khalifa skyscraper is 828 meters. This building has 163 floors: it is so high that it can be seen far beyond the city limits.

In January 2010, construction was completely completed, and the grand opening of the tower took place. Initially it was planned as a “city within a city”, with its own parks, flower beds, and shops. Until the completion of construction, the height of the building was kept strictly secret. In total, construction of the world's tallest building, the Burj Khalifa, cost more than $4 billion and took four years to complete, with an average construction rate of one to two floors per week.

Inside the skyscraper there are apartments, office buildings, shopping centers, restaurants and a hotel. There are three separate entrances - for the hotel, for offices and for apartments. The building contains several gyms, swimming pools, observation decks, some of which have a Jacuzzi, nine hotels, several restaurants, including the Atmosphere restaurant. Due to the fact that the restaurant is located on the 122nd floor, it has become the highest restaurant in the world.

Initially, the skyscraper was to be called “Burj Dubai”, but at the opening ceremony, the then ruler of the Emirate of Dubai, Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, said: “From now on and forever, this tower will bear the name “Khalifa” - “Burj Khalifa.” Thus, he forever renamed the skyscraper in honor of the man who had done so much for the now prosperous state of the United Arab Emirates - Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

The Burj Khalifa skyscraper is not only the tallest, but also the most expensive skyscraper in the world! The creator of the project is American architect Adrian Smith, Samsung was the main contractor. Giorgio Armani himself worked on the design of the Armani Hotel, located from the first to the thirty-ninth floors. To build the tower, special concrete was invented that can withstand temperatures above 50 degrees. Due to its special formula, this concrete had to be laid exclusively at night; it is known that ice was added to it. The glass of the skyscraper is equipped with a special thermal system that does not allow dust and ultraviolet rays to pass through and helps maintain a constant temperature inside the Burj Khalifa. Not only is the air in the tallest skyscraper in the world constantly cooled and enriched with oxygen, it is also aromatized. Moreover, this fragrance was also developed specifically for Burj Khalifa and has a unique character.

There are 57 elevators in the building, but only the service elevator moves from the first to the top floor. Guests of the skyscraper have to move between floors with transfers. These elevators reach speeds of up to 10m/s.

In front of the facade of the tallest building in the world there is an artificial lake in which the Dubai Singing Fountain was opened - it is illuminated by almost 7,000 light sources and more than 50 spotlights.

Burj Khalifa observation deck, called “At the Top” and located on the 124th floor, offers visitors an incredible panorama of the city. From such a height, the new business center of Dubai, of which this skyscraper is the center, looks like a city from the future. You can enjoy this view on average for about an hour, which is exactly how long the walk lasts, tickets for which are sold in the lobby of the building. The cost of these tickets ranges from thirty-six (a regular ticket, for which there is usually a huge queue) to one hundred and ten dollars (by purchasing this ticket you can immediately proceed to the site without waiting in line).

It is not yet possible to say how soon a building taller than the Burj Khalifa will appear in Dubai , but today the skyscraper still retains this proud title and is the tallest building in the world.

Just a couple of decades ago camels were happily galloping along the dunes here, but now the former desert is filled with glass towers of skyscrapers. The favorite brainchild of the Emir of Dubai, Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the city's new business center, 2 square kilometers of luxury offices, apartments, hotel rooms, shops and entertainment facilities. The symbol of the new destiny of the capital of the emirate, which wanted to turn from a provincial raw materials appendage into the capital of the world, was to become the Burj Dubai skyscraper. Two years after the completion of the high-rise building, it still remains only the personification of a monstrous bubble in the local real estate market, which almost sent its creators around the world. Blogger Darriuss talks about the difficult fate of the tallest building in the world.

Back in the 1960s, Dubai looked something like this, and it seemed that nothing foreshadowed the transformation by Allah of a forgotten run-down town on the shores of the Persian Gulf into a fashionable metropolis.

The capital of the unknown emirate was ruled by the British imperialists; electricity and telephone communications appeared here only in the 1950s, and the main content of the life of the local inhabitants was hatred of the neighboring, slightly more successful emirate of Abu Dhabi. Even pearls, the production of which Dubai flourished somewhat in the 1920s, were no longer needed by anyone.

But in 1971, oil was discovered here. And although in significantly smaller quantities than in the same unloved Abu Dhabi, this was enough for the population of Dubai to grow more than 3 times from 1968 to 1975, mainly due to the influx of guest workers from India and Pakistan. After an initial period of capital accumulation, when local camel breeders suddenly became rich and began to actively embrace the benefits of civilization and explore the world beyond their own tent, in the 1990s Dubai began to rapidly develop as the economic center of the region, which was facilitated by general tensions in the Persian Gulf, where Dubai remained an island. stability, and successful friendship with well-chosen world gendarmes. Ultimately, thanks to the grand discovery of unknown bearded geologists with a guitar, just 40 years after it, Dubai began to look strong and prosperous.

In 1998, Emaar Properties, a newly formed development company whose main shareholder is the government of the Emirate of Dubai, began work on its most ambitious project. On two square kilometers of desert, previously occupied by a military base, construction began on a new business center in Dubai, called “Downtown” according to the American model. For $20 billion, they built not a microdistrict of panel houses for those in need of improved living conditions, but a whole series of residential complexes, business centers, high-rise hotels and, finally, the world's largest shopping and entertainment center, Dubai Mall, with a total area of 1.2 million ( !) square meters, of which 1,200 stores occupied only 350 thousand “squares”. This is what “Downtown Dubai” looked like on a model made in the workshops of the Dubaigrado Design Institute.

Plan of the new center of Dubai. The massive building on the right side of the render is the Dubai Mall.

The main character of “Downtown Dubai” was to be a skyscraper designed on a peninsula in an artificial reservoir, where a huge fountain complex was later built. The high-rise building, in which it was planned to house hundreds of thousands of square meters of offices, apartments, hotel rooms and public premises, according to the investors’ idea, had to not only be the tallest in the world, but also reliably and with a margin exceed the record height of 509 meters, in addition It has been held by the Taipei 101 tower in Taipei for six years now. Moreover, the Dubai sheikhs decided to go for a walk: the new symbol of Dubai was, in principle, to become the tallest structure ever built on planet Earth, overtaking the 646-meter Warsaw radio tower, which collapsed, however, along with socialism back in 1991.

Psychoanalysts could say a lot about such a passionate desire to surpass rivals in the length of, let’s say, a vertical dominant, but in some ways the Dubai sheikhs can be understood. Their emirate was completing the process of reorienting the economy from oil and gas production to the provision of various types of services, and some well-known symbol of the city’s new existence as a financial, cultural, entertainment, and finally a tourist center, not just on a regional, but on a planetary scale, was necessary. Dubai now accounts for just 2% of the United Arab Emirates' gas production, and its oil reserves are widely expected to run out within the next 20 years. The Emirate was lucky that its government realized the extent of the inevitable disaster in time and, while the means were available, took measures to prevent it.

To design the iconic building, which received the simple name “Burj Dubai” (translated from Arabic as “Dubai Tower”), the bosses of Emaar Properties turned to the American company SOM. Skidmore, Owings and Merrill. What was once a relatively small Chicago bureau has now become a true multinational architectural corporation with hundreds of projects, offices around the world and thousands of employees. The firm's senior partner, Adrian Smith, was appointed chief architect for the project. He proposed for the construction of an 830-meter building at once, which is a trefoil in plan, into which several volumes of different heights are combined around a central core.

According to Smith, the artistic image of the Burj Dubai was inspired by traditional Islamic architecture, and the Y-shaped plan was supposed to resemble a hymenocallis flower, a plant found in the vicinity of Dubai.

For comparison, this is the architect's source of inspiration.

Architectural experts, in turn, immediately drew attention to the external similarity of the Burj Dubai with the Illinois project of the outstanding American architect Frank Lloyd Wright. This mile-high utopian skyscraper was conceived by Wright back in 1956, but, of course, could not be realized at that time due to the lack of construction technologies suitable for the scope of the idea.

Legends are legends, but the trefoil plan with a very simple structure allows you to most effectively deal with wind loads on the building, which pose a serious problem for buildings of this height. Their additional reduction is also facilitated by the spiral tiered structure of the skyscraper, the area of the floors of which consistently decreases as the tower moves upward. In addition, the Y-shape is ideal for ensuring that as many interior spaces as possible have panoramic views of the Arabian Gulf and the city.

The construction site of Downtown Dubai is still empty, only the foundation of the Dubai Tower has been completed. The main contractor for the work was the construction division of the Korean corporation Samsung.

So, Samsung, using mainly Indians and Pakistanis, had to build an 830-meter building with 163 floors with a total area of 310 thousand square meters. The first 39 floors of the Burj Dubai, the largest in area, were given over to rooms and apartments of the Armani Hotel, then private apartments were designed up to and including the 108th floor, the upper, smallest levels were given over to offices. These three large groups of premises were supplemented with special technical floors, as well as public floors, where everyone has access: several observation platforms, restaurants, and a swimming pool.

The diagram below clearly shows how the floor area of the Dubai Tower decreases as its number of floors increases. At the top is a typical hotel floor plan, in the center is an apartment floor plan, and at the bottom is an office floor plan. The three wings of the skyscraper are united by a clearly visible central hexagonal core, where stairs, elevators and other engineering are located.

And this is what the plan from the diagram above looked like in real life. Next to the foundation of the future skyscraper, figures of builders can be seen, from which one can roughly imagine the general scale of the building. 45 thousand cubic meters of concrete were poured into the foundation alone, 192 piles were used, each with a diameter of 1.5 and a length of 43 meters.

Structurally, the building is a monolithic frame made of reinforced concrete with continuous cladding of glass panels. In total, 330 thousand cubic meters of concrete, 55 thousand tons of reinforcement and 22 million (!) man-hours were spent on its construction. The latest achievement, ensured by the labor of several thousand builders who were usually on the construction site at the same time, as well as the low assessment of this work on the part of Arab customers, periodically caused revolutionary turmoil among the workers.

At the same time, 3 tower cranes, installed on the top of the tower, with a lifting capacity of 25 tons each, were working on the construction of the building.

The glazing of the skyscraper, as is customary for such high-rise buildings, took place in parallel with construction.

In total, it was necessary to install more than 26 thousand glass panels (the photo shows the process of installing one of them) with a total area of 142 thousand square meters. Day and night this important task was carried out by more than 300 specialists discharged from the PRC.

Some fragments of the building required not just glass cladding, but also filling the walls with silicate blocks, which is popular in Belarus.

As the skyscraper gained height, the area of the floors was successively reduced, and ultimately the upper levels, in fact, represent only the central hexagonal core without the trefoil petals. To harmoniously complete the artistic image of the high-rise, it was necessary to install a steel spire weighing 4 thousand tons on this core. The spire contains 46 additional technical floors. Thus, the total number of floors of the building reaches 209 (plus two underground parking levels).

Construction of the Burj Dubai lasted exactly six years and ended with the grand opening ceremony on January 4, 2010. Due to the crisis that broke out in Dubai in 2009, the construction of the tallest building in the world was delayed for an extra year. The ambitious projects of the emirate's leadership almost buried it (the emirate). The Burj Dubai alone cost $1.5 billion, and if not for financial assistance from neighboring Abu Dhabi, which kindly lent a life-saving $20 billion at a critical moment, Dubai would have faced financial collapse. One of the conditions for providing support was, apparently, the rather humiliating renaming of the “Dubai Tower” to “Burj Khalifa” (“Khalifa Tower”) in honor of the ruler of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahyan.

Thus, the main high-rise accent of the Dubai skyline, the pride of the emirate and a symbol of its bright future, was named after the Emir of Abu Dhabi. Given the long tradition of rivalry between the two Arab emirates, the decision was probably not easy for the Dubai sheikhs.

The Burj Khalifa complex on a situational plan. The numbers indicate: 1 - main entrance, 2 - Armani Hotel entrance, 3 - entrance for skyscraper residents, 4 - observation deck, 5 - promenade, 6 - gardens, 7 - fountains, 8 - children's playground, 9 - recreation area, 10 - technical area, 11 - entrance for those working in the building.

The area around the skyscraper looks something like this. You can even forget for a while that there is a lifeless desert around you.

Burj Khalifa in all its glory.

The grandiose “dancing” fountains alone cost the owners $200 million.

The Burj Khalifa is served by 57 elevators and 8 escalators. Each elevator accommodates 12-14 people and moves at speeds of up to 18 meters per second. Just in case there is a firefighter (literally), there is also a staircase up to the height of the 160th floor. Those who want to walk along it will have to climb 2909 steps.

The lower 39 floors of the building are occupied by rooms and apartments of the Armani Hotel, the first hotel designed by the famous Italian fashion designer. For example, the hotel corridor on the 39th floor looks so minimalistic.