The Burj Khalifa in Dubai is the reigning tallest building in the world. At its foot, Dubai's new city centre spreads out with the record-breaking "Downtown Dubai" full of glitz and glamour.
With a massive height of 828 metres, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai is the tallest structure in the world and the tallest construction ever created by man. On a clear day, the needle-tipped tower can still be seen from a distance of 100 kilometres, clearly marking the new centre of Dubai. The colossal structure is one of our Top 10 Sights of Dubai and Top 10 Sights of the United Arab Emirates.
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PICTURES: Burj Khalifa in Dubai
Photo gallery: Burj Khalifa in Dubai
Until its opening, the Burj Khalifa was known as "Burj Dubai" ("Tower of Dubai"); only after its inauguration was it given the name of the current president of the United Arab Emirates. The design of the overwhelming building was created by the American architect Adrian Smith.
Creation of the Burj Khalifa in Dubai
Construction of the Burj Khalifa began in 2004 and the grand opening took place in January 2010. The enormous skyscraper initiated the founding of a whole new city district, Downtown Dubai. For the incredible sum of 20 billion US dollars, flats, offices, hotels, shopping malls and temples of leisure were created here alongside the Burj Khalifa.
The Burj Khalifa itself houses the world's first Armani Hotel on the lower 37 floors, with offices and suites above. At a height of 452 metres on the 124th floor, there is a viewing platform that is the second highest in the world after that of the Shanghai World Financial Center.
The view over the megacity of Dubai is absolutely stunning. The lifts go even further, up to the 189th floor at 638 metres. With a speed of 10m/s (36km/h), the double-deck lifts of the Burj Khalifa are among the fastest in the world.
The Burj Khalifa is also already known to the film world. In "Mission Impossible 4″, Tom Cruise dared a breakneck climb on the glass facade of the breathtaking skyscraper.
Tip: If you want to visit the observation deck of the Burj Khalifa, you should pre-order your ticket on the internet, which is a lot cheaper. You can also expect crowds of tourists at almost any time of day.
Record Breaker Burj Khalifa
The world's tallest building (even 830m high to the top) is also the world's tallest residential building and also houses the world's most floors, the highest roof and the highest usable floor.
Since the construction of the Empire State Building in New York, all these records are once again united in a single structure. The highest inhabited floor is floor 163, and the 122nd floor is home to the world's highest restaurant, At Mosphere.
Records are also tumbling in the vicinity of the Burj Khalifa. The Dubai Fountain on Lake Dubai is the largest water feature in the world with a length of 250 metres and water fountains up to 150 metres high. It is also one of our top 10 sights in Dubai.
Right next to it is the huge Dubai Mall with 1,200 shops, the largest shopping centre in the world. The distances between the designer shops are so enormous that the veiled wives of the sheikhs are driven from one boutique to the next in golf carts. An underground connection takes you from the Dubai Mall directly to the Burj Khalifa.
Decadent: Since February 2011, two gold vending machines have been available in the Burj Khalifa. Like an ATM, you can withdraw money here, but the machine does not spit out banknotes but gold bars up to the weight of one ounce.
| Height: | 828 metres |
| Weight: | 500,000 tons |
| Number of floors: | 189 |
| Number of lifts: | 57 |
| Number of flats: | 1.044 |
| Initial price for flats per square metre: | 23,000 euros |
| Floor area: | 517,240 square metres |
| Workers involved in the construction: | Up to 12,000 |
| Hours worked on the construction site: | 22 million |
| Construction costs: | 1 billion euros |
| Parking spaces in the multi-storey car park: | 3.000 |
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