He turns 10 today the tallest skyscraper in the worldIt is called Burj Khalifa (Khalifa Tower, in Arabic) and was inaugurated on January 4, 2010 in Dubai, where today it is one of the most visited attractions.
When the Burj Khalifa construction site opened in 2004, the height record was held by the skyscraper Taipei 101 of Taiwan, measuring 509,2 meters. Six years later, the Dubai Tower swept away that record by raising the bar much higher, to 828 metres.
In these 10 years, Taipei 101 has been surpassed by eight other skyscrapers - six of which are in China - but none of these buildings has managed to undermine his majesty Burj Khalifa: to date, the second position is occupied by Shanghai Tower, Which size just 632 meters.
Costing around one and a half billion dollars, the record-breaking skyscraper is the result of the sheikh's ambition Mohammed bin Rashid Āl Maktum, Emir of Dubai and current Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates. The completion of the work, however, is due to Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahayan – emir of Abu Dhabi and president of the country – who in 2008 intervened financially to unblock the works, which had stalled due to the great economic crisis that had just erupted. For this investment, Khalifa got the tower renamed in his honor (its original name was Burj Dubai).
But glory is not eternal and after a record decade the Burj Khalifa is also preparing to hand over the scepter. In fact, by 2020, the Jeddah Tower (Jeddah Tower, from the name of the city on the Red Sea), whose vertical extension will break down the kilometer wall, reaching an altitude of 1.008 metres.
