Dubais crowning attraction is visible frommiles away: Burj
Khalifa, the worlds tallest building, stands 160 stories above the
ground, 950 feet higher than the World Trade Center in Manhattan.
No matter where you are in Dubai, its hard to escape the gleaming,
triple-sided steel-and-glass silhouette, looming over the city at
night like a huge twinkling syringe.
The History of the Burj Khalifa
The needle-topped skyscraper first opened in 2010, though work
on the project began much earlier, in 2004. A total of $1.5 billion
was spent on construction, which might explain the rather lavish
opening ceremony that first introduced Burj Khalifa to the world.
On January 4, 2010, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoumpresented
the tower in all its glory, underscoring the important role it
would play in developing the destination as a high-traffic tourist
destination. To mark the occasion, there was a 10-minute fireworks
display, launched off the building itself.
Burj Khalifa Facts
Unlike any skyscraper the world had seen before, Burj Khalifa
was a truly collaborative undertaking, requiring some 12,000
construction workers per day, who logged a collective 22 million
man hours. Its foundations plummet 141 feet below ground. To keep
the glass looking spic and span, a total of 18 automated units are
installed on tracks on the side of the building; it takes up to
four months to clean all 24,000 windows.
But its not just window cleaners who perform daring feats on the
planets tallest building. In 2010, during filming of Mission
Impossible: Ghost Protocol, Tom Cruise and the entire crew
flew to Dubai to create memorable scenes of Cruise hanging,
Tarzan-style, from the top of the Burj Khalifa. Cruise famously
films all his own stunts, and for this particular sequence, the
actor was required to leap out of a windowa mile and a half above
Dubaiand then scramble vertically up the side of the glass tower,
all while strapped in to various ropes and harnesses.
Due to the height and material makeup (aluminum and stainless
steel) of Burj Khalifa, its often susceptible to powerful jolts
from lightning. Over the years, countless photographers and
videographers have captured dramatic images of the tower in
mid-strikea spectacle more dazzling than any water fountain show or
flashing billboard.
Though the skyscrapers exotic location is a considerable hike
for US travelers, its inspiration can be found much closer to home.
The design is actually based on a flower called the Spider Lily
(Hymenocallis), which is native to southern states like Georgia,
Alabama and Arkansas, as well as parts of the Mexico and South
America. The delicate, star-shaped blossom thrives in humid, swampy
climates, and can even be found sprouting up in the river valleys
of southern Missouri and Indianaworlds away from the twinkling high
rises of Dubai.