Largest
Clock - world record set by The Royal Mecca
Clock
MECCA, (Makkah), Saudi Arabia -- The Royal Mecca
Clock, a giant clock on a skyscraper in Islam's holiest
city has four faces measuring 151 feet (43 meters) in diameter
- setting the new world record for the Largest
Clock.
Over 90 million pieces of colored glass mosaic
embellish the sides of the World's
Largest Clock, which has four faces each bearing a
large inscription of the name "Allah". It is visible from
all corners of the city, the state news agency said.
Islam's holy month of Ramadan is
a lot about the calendar and the clock.
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 World's
Largest 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.
The Largest
Clock in The World will run on Arabia Standard Time,
which is three hours ahead of Greenwich Mean Time. Saudi Arabia
hopes the clock will establish the holy city as an alternate
time standard to the Greenwich median.
The clock tower is the landmark feature
of the seven-tower King Abdulaziz Endowment hotel complex,
being built by the Saudi Binladin Group, which will have the
largest floor area of any building in the world when it is
complete. Local media have said the clock tower project cost
$3 billion.
Local media have said the clock tower project
cost $3 billion.
Saudi Arabia's state news agency says the
tower, designed by German and Swiss engineers, will be more
than 600 meters high, or roughly six times the height of London's
famous Big Ben.
The clock tower is part of the Abraj al-Bait
hotel complex in Mecca. Visitors will be able to stand on
a terrace beneath the clock to view the city.
The project is part of efforts to
modernize the holy city and make it more capable of catering
to pilgrims. Around 2 million Muslims visit the city each
year for the annual Haj pilgrimage, a once-in-a-lifetime requirement
for able-bodied Muslims, and 3.5 million pilgrims visit Makkah
at other times of the year.
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.
