Tuesday 25 June 2013

Burj Khalifa - tallest building on earth

We taxied to the Burj Khalifa this morning, the tallest building in the world with over 200 floors.  It's so high, nobody seems to know exactly how many floors there are.  The lift took me just 30 seconds to travel to the Observation Deck on the 124th floor, which is where the tour takes you to.  Jean stayed on the ground.

From the Observation Deck, I looked down on Dubai below.  What struck me was how this is a city carved into the sand.  Its buildings, houses, shopping malls, mosques, roadworks and waterways are all surrounded by the ubiquitous off-white colour of the sand.  It stretches to the horizon and beyond.    they say the haze you see from that lofty height is not smog, but sand.  It was the highest I'd ever been in a building.  The World Trade Centre in New York had only 110 floors.  The tip of the Burj Khalifa can be seen 95 kilometres away....perhaps assuming there is no haze.

2 comments:

  1. Great reading your blog Malcom; sounds like you and Jean are having a fantastic trip with many new experiences! It has me intrigued as to why the Observation Deck of the Burj Khalifa building is on the 124th floor, when in fact the building is 200 floors tall?

    Enjoy the rest of your journey, and I'll be keeping an eye on your updates! Cheers, E & H

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