10 Fun Facts about the Burj Khalifa

The Burj Khalifa in Dubai, the current tallest building in the world, officially opens its doors to the world on the 4th of January, 2010. Today marks the 13th Anniversary so we at Radio Sargam thought to share some interesting facts about the tallest structure in the world.

Not only is the Burj Khalifa the world’s tallest building, it impressively breaks several other records. Here are 10 fun facts about the Burj Khalifa.

1. The Burj Khalifa height is a staggering 828 meters (2716.5 feet) tall, soaring over Dubai. It’s three times as tall as the Eiffel Tower and nearly twice as tall as the Empire State Building. Laid end to end, its pieces stretch over a quarter of the way around the world. Its cloud-piercing height is certainly one of the most impressive facts about Burj Khalifa.

2. Aside from holding the world record for being the tallest building in the world, the Burj Khalifa holds six other world records. The Burj Khalifa is also the tallest freestanding structure in the world, has the highest number of stories in the world, has the highest occupied floor in the world, has the highest outdoor observation deck in the world, has the elevator with the longest travel distance in the world, and has the tallest service elevator in the world.

Views of Dubai and stretching out over the Persian Gulf from the top of the Burj Khalifa

3. One of the most mind-blowing Burj Khalifa facts is how much the materials weigh. To put things into perspective, the weight of the concrete is equivalent to 100,000 elephants. The total weight of aluminium used on the Burj Khalifa is equivalent to that of five A380 aircraft.

The Dubai Fountain dances in front of the Burj Khalifa every 30 minutes from 6pm Wednesday through Sunday

4. Burj Khalifa fun facts that you can truly applaud are its sustainability and reuse of resources. Every year 15 million gallons of water are collected sustainably. The water is used for irrigation to water the landscaping and plants, for the cooling system and to supply the Dubai Fountain.

5. Some Burj Khalifa trivia about the elevators: the building has the longest single-running elevator, which is 140 floors. The Burj Khalifa elevator speed is 10 meters per second, making the elevators among the fastest in the world. The Burj Khalifa elevator time to reach the observation deck on the 124th floor is only one minute.

Craning our necks to look up at the sphere from the ground level

6. One of the lesser-known and more interesting facts about Burj Khalifa is that the tip of the sphere of the Burj Khalifa can be seen from up to 95 kilometres away.

7. Fairly known Burj Khalifa information is that at the peak of construction, 12,000 workers worked on the building per day.

8. Of course, you can’t leave out how the materials and man hours measure up when talking about interesting facts about the Burj Khalifa. It took more than 110,000 tons of concrete, 55,000 tons of steel rebar, and 22 million man-hours to complete the Burj Khalifa.

9. Exactly how long did it take to build the Burj Khalifa? Excavation began in January 2004. Six years later, the Burj Khalifa finally opened in January 2010.

10. Another of the Burj Khalifa interesting facts is that it is designed to resemble the Hymenocallis flower. The central core emerges at the top and culminates in a sculpted spire.