4 January: The Burj Khalifa

On this date in 2010 the Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building, was officially opened. Here are 10 facts about it.

1. Not only is it the world's tallest occupied building, but the tallest man made structure ever built. Previously the tallest structure ever built was a Radio mast in Warsaw which was 646.38m or 2,121 ft tall. The height of Burj Khalifa is 2716.5 ft or 828m. That's three times taller than the Eiffel Tower and twice as tall as the Empire State Building.
2. It was originally going to be called Burj Dubai (Dubai Tower), until the developers ran into financial difficulties and Sheikh Khalifa, the ruler of the United Arab Emirates, stumped up some cash to help them finish it. It was then named Burj Khalifa after him.
3. The tower holds a number of world records as well as being the world's tallest structure. It has more floors than any other building – 163. It contains the world's highest restaurant, nightclub and library. It also hosts the world's highest New Year Firework display.
4. It is so tall that on the higher floors, the sun sets three minutes later than at ground level. This means people living on the uppermost floors have to extend their Ramadan fasts by three minutes. Not only that, but the ambient temperature at the top is 6 degrees cooler than at ground level.
5. Also the air is cleaner up there, so the air conditioning system draws air from the area around the upper floors. The Water produced by the building's cooling system is used to irrigate the 27 acre park the tower stands in.
6. The architect who designed it was Adrian Smith. The design is based on a plant, the Hymenocallis or Spider Lily, a regional desert flower.
7. It took five years to build, from 2004 to 2009. It took 22 million man hours to build the tower with over 12,000 people working on the site at any given time.
8. Each of the common areas in the tower has its own bespoke fragrance.
9. A huge amount of art was commissioned for the tower, including a work called ‘World Voices' in the lobby, created by Jaume Plensa. His sculpture consists of 196 cymbals. Water dropping gently from the ceiling strikes the cymbals and creates a chorus of distinct tones which is intended to represent the voices of people from all over the world.
10. Burj Khalifa has more than 17,000 doors, 26,000 Glass panels (specially designed to ensure the building can withstand the heat of summer in Dubai), 57 elevators and contains 330,000 cubic meters (11.6 million cubic feet) of concrete, equivalent to the weight of 100,000 Elephants.

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