The Clock Towers

The tallest tower in the complex is the tallest building in Saudi Arabia, at and a total surface area of 32,000 square meters. It is the sixth-tallest freestanding structure in the world, surpassing the Ping An Finance Centre in Shenzhen, China but shorter than the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, UAE, the Merdeka 118 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, the One World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan, New York City, the Tokyo Skytree in Tokyo, Japan, the Zifeng Tower in Nanjing, Jiangsu, China, the Shanghai Tower in Shanghai, China, the CN Tower in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and the Canton Tower in Guangzhou, China. The site of the complex is across the piazza to the south from the main entrance (King Abdul-Aziz Gate) to the Masjid al Haram mosque, which houses the Kaaba. It accommodates worshippers visiting the Kaaba. The tallest tower in the complex also contains a five-star hotel, operated by Fairmont Hotels and Resorts, to help provide lodging for the millions of pilgrims that travel to Mecca annually to participate in the Hajj. In addition, The Clock Towers has a five-story shopping mall (The Clock Towers Shopping Center) and a parking garage capable of holding over a thousand vehicles. The building was planned to be tall in 2006. In 2009, it was published that the final height would be . The complex was built by the Saudi Binladin Group, Saudi Arabia's largest construction company. The façade was constructed by Premiere Composite Technologies, and the clock by German tower clock manufacturer PERROT GmbH & Co. KG Turmuhren und Läuteanlagen. Because of its location in Mecca, non-Muslim members of the construction team were not allowed to visit the site, and some specialists from Poland and Germany converted to Islam to be able to do so. According to the Saudi Ministry of Religious Endowments, the overall project cost US$15 billion. Clock There are clock faces on all four side of the main hotel tower. The total height of the clock is , situated above the media displays under the clock faces. At , these are the largest in the world. The roof of the clock is above the ground, making it the world's most elevated architectural clock. A spire has been added on top of the clock giving it a total height of . Behind the clock faces, there is an astronomy exhibition. In the spire base and the iron-covered floors (The Jewel) there is a scientific center that is used to sight the moon at the beginning of the Islamic months, and to operate an atomic clock that controls the tower clock faces. List of component towers ==Features==

The building is topped by a four-faced clock, visible from away. The clock is the highest in the world at over above the ground, surpassing the Allen-Bradley clock tower in Milwaukee. The clock faces are the largest in the world, surpassing the Cevahir Mall clock in Istanbul. Each of the clock's four faces measures in diameter and are illuminated by 2 million LED lights, with four oriented edges, just above the clock alongside huge Arabic script reading: "Takbir|God is [the] greatest" on the north and south faces and on the west and east "There is no god but Allah. Muhammad is the messenger of God." Four golden domes on pillars on all the corners are also present. The same as the Saudi flag, fitted at the top of the clock, flash to signal Islam's five-time daily prayers. On special occasions such as new year, 21,000 green and white xenon bulbs and LED lamps during the call to the five prayers times of the day. On special occasions, 40 beacon lights create lighting effects. In addition, strong lasers throw their rays 30 kilometers into the sky. The clock's four faces are covered with 98 million pieces of glass mosaics. The Saudi coat of arms is displayed at the center of each clock behind the dials. The minute hand is long, while the hour hand is long. There were reports that the clock would be set to Mecca Time, in an attempt to replace the IERS Reference Meridian as the prime meridian for global time keeping, but the clock is set to Arabia Standard Time (UTC+03:00). Spire The spire has an eight-story glass-covered base (The Jewel) which belongs to a scientific center having its own small exhibition, another observation deck at . The highest floor in The Jewel is the Control Tower Floor, which was planned to be used for controlling air traffic in the sky above Mecca (mainly helicopters, as airplanes are not allowed near Mecca). However, this was skipped for technical reasons and the future usage is not clear yet. Above from The Jewel, the spire has only technical installations for sound, light, and other infrastructure and eventually the last viewing deck and the crescent above it. The crescent is in diameter, has two regular floors with living areas, a prayer room in the center of the crescent and a few service floors and rooms. The crescent was constructed in Dubai in April 2011. It is made of fiberglass-backed mosaic gold, and it weighs up to 35 tonnes. It cost 90 million United Arab Emirates dirhams and took three months to build. The minaret and its base have loudspeakers which broadcast prayer calls to a distance of away and across an area of approximately . ==Incidents==

Construction fires The Clock Towers complex had two fire incidents during construction. The first fire accident was at Hajar Tower on 28 October 2008. It took 400 firefighters to put out the fire, which burned for 10 hours, consuming nine floors of the tower. According to eyewitness reports, the blaze erupted shortly after midnight, and spread rapidly because of wood used for construction stored in the premises. Soon, the entire building was engulfed in smoke. Hospitals were put on high alert, but no injuries were reported. A civil defence spokesman claimed the fire started on the 32nd floor of the Hajar Tower. The second fire struck the Safa Tower on 1 May 2009. No deaths or injuries were reported in the blaze which was quickly contained by Civil Defence. Eyewitnesses said the fire broke out soon after Asr prayer while some workers in the building were welding iron rods on wooden scaffoldings. The fire damaged a large part of the under-construction tower. According to Major General Adel Zamzami, director general of Civil Defence in the Mecca province, the fire broke out at the 14th floor and reached up to the 20th floor. The development has been criticized by The Guardian for having "transformed a type of architecture that evolved from a dense urban grain of low-rise courtyards and narrow streets into ... an endlessly repeatable pattern for the decoration of standardized [concrete] slab(s)". ==Gallery==

File:Abraj_Al_Bait_Tower.jpg|Abraj al Bait Tower from Haram Piaza File:Clock_Tower_Makkah.jpg|Clock Face on a sunny day File:Makkah_Clock_Tower.jpg|Abraj al Bait Tower from Haram Courtyard File:Clock_Tower_Makkah_in_early_morning.jpg|Clock Tower in early morning File:Clock_Tower_Makkah_in_morning.jpg|Clock Tower in the evening File:Clock Tower Makkah from Marwa.jpg|Clock Tower as seen from Mount Marwa File:Clock_Tower_Makkah_2.jpg|Abraj al Bait from another angle File:Haram Piaza.jpg|Clock Tower as seen from Haram King Abdullah Expansion File:Overlooking_Clock_Tower.jpg|Clock Tower looking tall. File:Abraj_Al_Bait_Towers.jpg|Clock Tower at dawn File:المسجد الحرام٣.jpg|Clock Tower at night File:ClockTower Makkah.jpg|Ground level view of Clock Tower ==See also==