The Abraj Al Bait towers, located at the center of Mecca in Saudi Arabia, or also known as Mecca Royal Clock Tower Hotel have a total height of 601 m. Its name means “The House”, called after the mosque that can be found at the same street, the sacred “Ka’aba”. 

 

Its construction got started on 2004 but it wasn’t ready until 8 years later, in 2012. Estimations say that the total cost of construction reached the 15,000 million dollars, however everything was financed by Saudi Bin Laden group. On the other hand, the design was sponsored by the Funds of King Abdulaziz, whose goal was to modernise the city and to offer better places to stay to the increasing tourists that the Mecca receives. 

 

These towers have a total area of 1,500,000 m2. In this area we can discover the 7 towers, with heights between 200 and 300 meters, all of them situated on the top of a 115 meters podium. The Royal Clock Tower Hotel is also placed there. 

 

Regarding the area, it can only be compared to Terminal 3 of the International Airport of Dubai.  

 

As recalled, there are a vast amount of curiosities and world’s records in this zone. 

 

Another one is the highest watch ever built. It can be found at the tower façade and its dimensions are 43 m x 43 m and it’s located at 530 m of altitude, what means being 200 m higher than the Big Ben. Due to its enormous size, it can be seen from 25 km away. At the top of the tower, over the clock, a 71m tall needle joined to half a moon made of crystal fiber covered in gold can be admired, decorating the last 23 meters of the tower. This moon is also equipped with speakers that can make the prayers be heard up to 7 km away. 

 

These towers are nowadays used for a number of different things. For instance, in one of the towers there is a 5 star hotel, which every year hosts more than 2 million pilgrims that visit the “Hajj” event. Due to the fact that is near the Kaaba, 

 

Muslims most sacred place, the hotel contains a massive place were more than 4,000 people could pray at once. Furthermore, it includes a 4-floor shopping mall center, parking for almost 1,000 cars, a heliport and some convention centers… In conclusion, more than 100,000 people or pilgrims can have a shelter simultaneously in these towers.