Giant £500million clock in Islamic holy city

[Fighter488]

Will we soon set watches to Mecca Mean Time? ​

Giant £500million clock being built in Islamic holy city

By Mail Foreign Service

Last updated at 9:23 AM on 11th August 2010


For over a century, an observatory in a south-east London park has been used as the reference point to set every watch on the globe.
But Greenwich Mean Time is facing a challenge to its claims as the starting point for each new day.

A giant new clock being built in the Islamic holy city of Mecca hopes to usurp the role of Greenwich Observatory, and aims to have the world's 1.5 billion Muslims setting their watches by its time.

Dominant: The four-face clock will tower over the holy Kabaa in Mecca, Saudi Arabia at a height of 1,972 ft

Similar: The Mecca clock (left) bears a strong resemblance to London's Big Ben, but is in fact much higher at more than 2000ft


The four-faced clock, which bears a striking resemblance to Big Ben's tower, will top a massive skyscraper that when completed will stand at almost 2,000 feet, making it one of the world's tallest buildings.
Only one of the clock's four faces has so far been completed and is covered with 98 million pieces of glass mosaics. Each face will be inscribed with 'God is greatest' in Arabic and fitted with thousands of coloured lights, making it visible from more than 16 miles.
It will run on Arabia Standard Time, which is three hours ahead of GMT, and will begin testing tomorrow.

Top of the clocks: The face is a massive 141ft in height, and tests on it will begin tomorrow


The Saudi clock, will dwarf St Stephen's Tower which houses Big Ben, once the largest four-faced clock in the world, with dials more than five times greater in area.

Islamic scholars hope that when the timepiece is finished, it will eclipse Greenwich Observatory as the world's centre of time.
'Putting Mecca time in the face of Greenwich Mean Time, this is the goal,' said Mohammed Al-Arkubi, the manager of one of the hotels in the complex.

At a conference in Doha in 2008, Muslim clerics and scholars presented 'scientific' arguments that Mecca time is the true global meridian. They said that Mecca is the centre of the world and that the Greenwich standard was imposed by the West.

Challenge: The unveiling of the clock is a deliberate attempt to take over from Greenwich Observatory which was chosen as the starting point for the measurement of time in 1884

Greenwich was chosen as the starting point for the measurement of time at the International Meridian Conference in 1884 and has retained its crown largely unchallenged during the ensuing 125 years.
The 130 foot diameter clock dials in Mecca will also bigger than the current world record holder at the Cevahir Mall clock in Istanbul, which has a 36 meter face.

The complex overlooks Mecca's famed Grand Mosque, which Muslims worldwide face during their five daily prayers and is part of Saudi efforts to develop the city visited by millions of pilgrims every year.

German and Swiss engineers designed the clock and according to the Ministry of Religious Endowments, the entire project will cost $800 million.





Giant £500m clock being built in Islamic holy city of Mecca | Mail Online

 

[GentlemanObserver]

That money could be well spent elsewhere.

 

[Break the Silence]

That money could be well spent elsewhere.

Well said bro!!

 

[jha]

That money could be well spent elsewhere.

Not only this a lot of their money could be spent elsewhere..but its their money..

 

[GentlemanObserver]

Not only this a lot of their money could be spent elsewhere..but its their money..

You see, i don't really get this point. Why do people nit pick at people posts just to make a swipe? The money belongs to them but there are better things to spend it on.

Just take the dome in Wembley for example. that money could have been invested in the NHS but new labour diverted the funds into what would become the biggest disaster in UK investment history after the collapse of "Bearings & Co".


Investing £500 million on a clock? Hang on a minute? Forget Pakistan, i am one of those who gave up on Saudi help years ago... But in their own back yard, they are people starving in parts of Iraq, in Palestine in other African nations.

Saudi Arabia is the "holy see" of Islam, then why when it comes to helping Muslim countries in strife it is always the "infidels"... LOL... who are coming on top?

Saudi Arabia is a land of narcissist, hedonistic loafers aloof from the reality exploding around them. They would not understand mercy if it came and smacked them in their faces.