Out of the desert of the Middle East, is rising a new Chocolate Bunny… take it away Yahoo:
The Burj Dubai tower is now 555 metres (1,831.5 feet) tall and has surpassed the 553-metre- (1,824.9-feet) CN Tower in Toronto, Canada, which held the record for the world’s tallest free-standing structure since 1976, developers Emaar Properties said in a statement.
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The statement did not reveal the tower’s final projected height or its final number of storeys, which Emaar has kept secret since launching the project in January 2004.
The developer announced in July that Burj Dubai, Arabic for Dubai Tower, had exceeded Taiwan‘s Taipei 101 which is 508 metres (1,676.4 feet) tall, to become the tallest building in the world.
and for your information, the Burj Dubai Tower can now be seen from a distance of 57 miles (49 nm). No news on any planned gold plating.
57 miles! OMG! That is just crazy. The fire department can only reach the lower seven floors. I wonder if they plan to show Irwin Allen’s “The Towering Inferno” at its’ opening?
Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth.” Gen. 11:4
Interesting to note that the original Tower of Babel was built on the plain of Shinar, not far from this location (relatively speaking, of course).