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Saudi’s giant clock to establish ‘Makkah Time’

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Saudi’s giant clock to establish ‘Makkah Time’

10 August 2010, 4:33 PM

MECCA, Saudi Arabia — Muslims around the world could be setting their watches to a new time soon when the world's largest clock begins ticking atop a soaring skyscraper in Islam's holiest city of Mecca.

Saudi Arabia hopes the four faces of the new clock, which will loom over Mecca's Grand Mosque from what is expected to be the world's second tallest building, will establish Mecca as an alternate time standard to the Greenwich median.


The clock is targeted to enter service with a three-month trial period in the first week of the holy month of Ramadan on or about August 12, according to the Saudi state news agency SPA.

It boasts four glimmering 46 metre-across (151 feet) faces of high-tech composite tiles, some laced with gold, sitting more than 400 metres (1,320 feet) over the Holy Haram compound.

The tower's height will reach 601 metres (1,983 feet), SPA said. On its website, Premiere Composite, which is responsible for cladding the top section, including a shimmering spire topped by a golden crescent moon, puts the planned height at 590 metres (1,947 feet).

That would make it the world's second tallest building -- ahead of Taiwan's 509 metre (1,670 feet) Taipei 101, but well behind the Burj Khalifa, the 828 metre (2,717 feet) skyscraper inaugurated in Dubai in January.

Some 250 "highly qualified Muslim workers" were completing welding work on the clock's frame, SPA said.

More than six times larger in diameter than London's famed Big Ben, the clock faces, with the Arabic words "In the Name of Allah" in huge lettering underneath and will be lit with two million LED lights.

Some 21,000 white and green coloured lights, fitted at the top of the clock, will flash to as far as 30 kilometres (18.7 miles) to signal Islam's mandatory five-times daily prayers.

On special Muslim occasions, 16 bands of vertical lights will shoot some 10 kilometres (6.2 miles) up into the sky.

"Everyone is interested to see the clock, despite the lack of sufficient information about it, and its mechanism," said Mecca resident Hani al-Wajeeh.

"We in Mecca hope to be the world's central time zone, and not just have a clock to look at, to show off," he said.

The developer of the massive seven-tower Abraj al-Bait complex had kept the details of the clock a secret, but it is visibly in place now, adorned with the green crossed sword and palm symbol of the Saudi state.

Mohammed al-Arkubi, the manager of the Royal Mecca Clock Tower Hotel in the building below, said the installation of the clock, its faces made by the German-owned Dubai company, Premiere Composite Technologies, has been "a huge operation."

The clock reflects a goal by some Muslims to replace the 126-year-old Universal Time standard -- originally called Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) -- with Mecca mean time.

Big does not begin to describe the Abraj al-Bait complex just across the street from the south gate of the Grand Mosque, the Muslim world's most sacred site.


Built by a government-controlled fund, the complex sits seven huge towers atop a massive podium. Six are between 42 and 48 stories, and in the middle is the clock tower, appearing nearly twice as tall as the others.

Moreover, the entire complex, with 3,000 hotel rooms and apartments, a five-story shopping centre and gigantic prayer and conference halls, will give it 1.5 million square metres (16.1 million square feet) of floor space, according to architects and construction industry reports.

At that it will tie Dubai International Airport's newest terminal three for the world's largest building by floor space.

The complex will sport three top-class hotels, the Fairmont, Raffles and Swiss Hotel. It will also have hundreds of luxury apartments, most of them designed to have a direct view of the Grand Mosque.

The project is part of the Saudi government's plan to develop Mecca to be able to receive as many as 10 million hajj Pilgrims every year, up from the current three million capacity.

That is necessary to accommodate a rapidly growing global population of Muslims, who have a duty to make a pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in their lifetimes, if possible.

At the peak of the hajj, according to architect Dar al-Handasah, the complex should accommodate 65,000 people.

The clock will be the focus. Elevators will take visitors up to a huge viewing balcony just underneath the faces, and also a four-story astronomical observatory and Islamic museum.

"The construction of the biggest clock in the world in the purest spot on the earth is a dream-come-true for Muslims," said Atif Felmban, who lives in the city.

"Before, we heard and saw famous clocks in the West. But today we can as Muslims be proud of this giant project," said Ahmed Haleem, an Egyptian living in the Muslim holy city.

"I might leave Mecca before the opening ceremony for the clock. But I will be keen to follow it and set my watch to it as soon as it is working," Haleem said.

"It means an honour for a place, and time for me," he said.


2010 AFP


Engine of the big clock.












Control Center and followed the big clock tower with several atomic clocks.




16 special vertical beams can be thrown up more than 10 km altitude in the sky. Comparable to those of the World Trade Center site in New York City.

 











Abraj Al Bait



Height: 601 meters

Site area: 34 794 m2

Seating: 65 000 people

6 residential towers (27 and 33 storeys): 302 000 m² (864 units)

5 stars hotels (60 floors): 2 000 Rooms/apartments

Rooms Convention center for 1 500 people

A prayer room for 3 800 people

4 basement parking for 780 cars and 10 buses

Two heliports

Cost: $ 3 billion U.S.


Contractor: Saudi Binladin Group

In 2002, the company had 35,000 employees worldwide, and was worth $ 5 billion.


 
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King Abdullah Financial District, Riyadh (built by Saudi Binladin Group)






One World Trade Center (Freedom Tower or Tower of Liberty)









Location: New York

Construction: 2006-2013

Use (s): Office, Restaurant

Antenna Height: 541.3 meters

Roof height: 417 meters

Height of top floor: 415 meters

Number of rooms: 108

Number of basements: 4

Rooms / apartments: 3 000

Area: 241,548 m2

Number of lifts: 103


Cost: $ 3 billion (US$ 3 billion estimate in February 2007)
 
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via my mobile on Friday 29 june after ASIR prayer:D

483233_327250544030239_1273841325_n.jpg
 




Currently it is absolute anarchy. A real garbage…









But tomorrow.:azn:

King Abdul Aziz road

7,000 properties to be requisitioned to make way for Makkah projects

By ARAB NEWS
Published: Dec 12, 2011 01:01 Updated: Dec 12, 2011 01:01


MAKKAH: More than 7,000 real estate units will be expropriated and demolished in Makkah in 2012 to make way for the expansion of the Grand Mosque and the development of the holy city, Al-Eqtisadiah newspaper reported on Sunday.

“About 3,000 of these new units worth more than SR40 billion will be seized as part of the project of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah for the development of Makkah,” said Mansour Abu Rayyash, chairman of the real estate committee at the Makkah Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

He said the other 4,000 houses would be demolished for the construction of the parallel road from the western side of the Grand Mosque.

“About 1,300 real estate units will be demolished next year after their value is evaluated for the construction of the second ring road while the remaining 2,700 houses will be demolished to make way for the first ring road and other development projects,” he said.

Abu Rayyash explained real estate units that would be seized for the second ring road were those lying at the extension of the road joining the Al-Biban area and Al-Kaaki bakeries.

“The real estate in this area is very expensive and the value of the houses to be seized and demolished may range from SR15 billion and SR20 billion,” he said.

According to Abu Rayyash, 1,700 units would also make way for the construction of the first ring road, power plants and other service facilities.

He believed the slowdown in real estate investment during the project’s previous phase in Makkah was caused by the focus on providing accommodation to pilgrims.

“The real estate market will soon pick up especially as work has started on the projects of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah to develop the holy city that carries an open budget,” he said.

He estimated the share of real estate investments to be more than 40 percent of the entire investment portfolio in Makkah.

“The injection of more than SR40 billion into the market next year as compensation for the owners of confiscated land will raise the level of liquidity to about SR150 billion.

Abu Rayyash said investing in seasonal accommodation for pilgrims constituted about 70 percent of business for 35 to 40 percent of investors who were from outside Makkah, 20 percent of trade went into purchasing of land, and construction of permanent housing accounted for the remaining 10 percent.

He expected the expropriation of land for the construction of ring and axial roads to turn currently neglected areas into attractive centers for future investment.


 
to hell with roads in makkah damn in madinah you can reach haram in minutes all roads from ring road 2 go for haram in makkah you are behind haram but you cant go :undecided: for meet few guests its take 7 hours :cry:
 
to hell with roads in makkah damn in madinah you can reach haram in minutes all roads from ring road 2 go for haram in makkah you are behind haram but you cant go :undecided: for meet few guests its take 7 hours :cry:

Yeah it is real torture to go from point A to point B in Makkah. I was once stuck in a Traffic jam in Makkah for 4 hours just so I can go to an exit.... And once I got there it was closed :cry:

Tomorrow you will find people saying "Harmain Railway is taking away the walking for great distances element from Hajj... DESTROY THEM" :lol: or my favorite "The first thing we will do after we liberate Makkah from Evil Saudis is take down those ugly towers (Now add) And the Evil railway" :rofl:
 
Yeah it is real torture to go from point A to point B in Makkah. I was once stuck in a Traffic jam in Makkah for 4 hours just so I can go to an exit.... And once I got there it was closed :cry:

Tomorrow you will find people saying "Harmain Railway is taking away the walking for great distances element from Hajj... DESTROY THEM" :lol: or my favorite "The first thing we will do after we liberate Makkah from Evil Saudis is take down those ugly towers (Now add) And the Evil railway" :rofl:

Only People of Mekkah can navigate Mekkah.

U and I are used to navigating highways, and grid layout roads; whereas Mekkah is a historic city.
 
i like these old american style retangular sky scrappers, today all sorts of complicated ugly designs are there for them
 
Mosa and Imran khan , why don't you use a bicycle? buy a good one and then go with 30 kmps speed :)
 
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