When I was a kid, there was a game I loved to play in secret with my pals. We would (all guys, just to make it clear) play a game of whipping out our , umm, packages? and see who could pee the farthest. It was just a stupid competition and we were too young at the time to realise that its size what matters as you get older. Obviously we outgrew that phase before we realised the importance of size.
But not everyone can leave this phase in life behind, such is the fascination with size. From the Sheikhs in Arabia to the engineers in the West ; all want to show that mine is the biggest. So if you are still keeping track of the tallest building mine contest , the latest record is 5250 feet. Thats almost one mile if you are still thinking.
It's going to be built in a new city near Jeddah on the Red Sea and is funded by billionaire Prince al-Walid bin Talal.
It'll have two supporting flying-buttress towers to help keep it up (both more than 800 feet high). It will also have advanced damping systems to stop the swaying at high floors from making people sick, and it's going to need amazing engineering to cope with freezing wind at the top and desert heat at the bottom.
It's so tall that much of the ferrying of material and construction workers will have to be by helicopter. I just hope they know what they are doing and dont have all of it crashing down. After 9/11; I just dont see why any more tall buildings should be made unless they are an absolute necessity. Imagine the fire safety requirements of this giant.