The tallest building in the world, Burj Khalifa, was opened 15 years ago

Name: Burj Khalifa

Originally, the tower was named Burj Dubai (burj means tower in Arabic), and on the day of the opening, it was renamed Burj Khalifa after the President of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

Location: Emirate of Dubai, part of the federation of the United Arab Emirates
Construction start: September 21, 2004
Height: 828 meters (14 times taller than the Petrín Lookout Tower)
Number of floors: 163 (plus 46 floors in the tower and two parking floors in the basement).
Owner: real estate company Emaar Properties

• The building's foundation is located 50 meters deep, anchored by 192 pillars
• Construction of the tower consumed 330,000 m³ of concrete and 39,000 tons of steel
• The exterior cladding consists of reflective glass, aluminum, and steel panels and tubular ribs
• At the peak of construction, 12,000 people were involved. A total of 22 million "person-hours" were worked on it
• The floor area is 310,000 m²
• The skyscraper has 57 elevators and eight escalators. Czech elevators from the Pardubice company Pega Hoist were also involved in the construction
• There are 2909 steps from the ground floor to the 160th floor

• The total height is not the only record of the skyscraper. It is also the tallest building ever, surpassing the television mast in North Dakota, which is just under 629 meters. The building also has the most floors, the highest occupied floor, a swimming pool, a mosque, a restaurant, and a fountain, as well as the fastest elevator.
• The skyscraper is the central element of the new Dubai Center. This project, completed in 2017, cost 20 billion dollars and includes the largest shopping center, as well as tens of thousands of apartments.
• In designing the building, the architects were inspired by the Hymenocallis flower, whose frilled bloom resembles an orchid. The building's floor plan resembles the open crown of this fragrant flower, which is widely grown not only in Dubai but also in India.
• As of October 2021, Dubai has the highest Ferris wheel in the world as well (the 250-meter high Dubai Eye), located on an artificial island near the Dubai harbor.
• As of last January, the Shanghai Tower, at 632 meters, is no longer the second tallest building in the world, but the Merdeka 118 skyscraper in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur, which has a highest point at 678.9 meters.
• The first suicide from the Burj Khalifa skyscraper occurred in May 2011.