To say the Burj Khalifa is a tall building is a bit of an understatement. One cannot help spotting it when visiting Dubai. It’s been the world’s tallest building since it’s completion in 2009 but will most likely lose that distinguished title in 2019. The following are nine amazing facts about the Burj Khalifa:

• The Burj Khalifa is the tallest artificial structure in the world. It stands at 2,722 feet, or 829.8 meters. To better put that in perspective, the Empire State Building is 1,250 feet or 381 meters, and even including the antenna, it’s 1,454 feet or 443 meters. The Burj Khalifa dwarfs it.
• The Burj Khalifa holds the following world records:

1. 1. Tallest existing structure
   2. Tallest structure ever built
   3. Tallest freestanding structure
   4. Tallest Skyscraper
   5. Tallest Skyscraper to top of antenna
   6. Building with the most floors (163)
   7. Highest occupied floor in the world (1,918 feet or 584.5 meters)
   8. Highest elevator installation
   9. Longest elevator travel distance (1,654 feet or 504 meters)
   10. Highest observation deck (1,821 feet or 555 meters)
   11. Highest nightclub (144th floor)
   12. Highest restaurant (122nd floor)

It holds even more records than that, but you get the idea.

• The Burj Khalifa took nearly 6 years to build, with construction beginning in January 2004 and finishing at the end of December 2009. It opened in January 2010.
• The construction cost for the Burj Khalifa was $1.5 billion and at the peak of construction, there were soma online 12,000 workers PER DAY.
• Scenes from Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol were filmed on and in the Burj Khalifa. Many of the stunts in which Ethan Hunt rapelled off the side of the Burj Khalifa, were actually performed by Tom Cruise himself.
• Alain “Spiderman” Robert, known as “the French Spider-Man,” climbed to the top from the outside, using external windows and a harness to help him. It took him just six hours.
• Twenty-two million man hours were used to complete construction on the Burj Khalifa. That’s totals over 2500 YEARS.
• The Burj Khalifa requires an average of 250,000 gallons of water every single day and it’s electrical demand can reach the equivalent of 360,000 100-watt bulbs burning at the same time.
• It was named to honor Sheik Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan for his 10 billion dollar contribution to Dubai.

For now, the Burj Khalifa remains the tallest in the world, with the next tallest being the Warsaw Radio Mast. However, Kingdom Tower in Saudi Arabia will soon take that prize. Construction began on Kingdom Tower in 2013 and is expected to be completed in 2019. It will be 1,008 meters tall (over 1 kilometer!) or 3,307 feet. It was initially planned to be 1 mile high (1.6 kilometers)!

How tall do you think the inevitable next tallest building will be? When do you think the first one mile high building will be built?