Burj Khalifa
Half a mile of reinforced concrete, straight up — the tallest structure on Earth since 2009.
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At 829.8 m it took the world height record from Taipei 101 and has held it ever since. The design pulls directly from Islamic architecture — specifically the Great Mosque of Samarra — making it something more considered than a vanity tower. Some of its structural steel was salvaged from the demolished Palace of the Republic in East Berlin, a detail that quietly connects two very different eras of ambition.
What to look for
- The Y-shaped tripartite silhouette — the three-wing floor geometry is readable from street level and was engineered to optimise every residential and hotel floor
- The 242.6 m spire, which is already counted within the 828 m roof height — the small remaining gap to the total 829.8 m comes from the antenna, which is excluded from that roof figure
- The exterior cladding, a purpose-built system designed to handle Dubai's extreme summer heat
Located along Sheikh Zayed Road in the 490-acre Downtown Dubai development; the building opened 4 January 2010 and contains 57 elevators across its central core.
Burj Khalifa is one of 33 sights worth the detour in Dubai, all bundled offline in Voyage GO — download the Dubai pack and it sits on your map with no signal, filling your travel passport the moment you walk past.
More to see in Dubai
- Burj al-ArabA hotel shaped like a dhow sail, planted on its own man-made island 280 meters off the beach.
- Dubai MallIn 2023 it drew a record 105 million visitors — up 19 percent year-on-year from the 88 million recorded the year before.
- 23 MarinaFifty-seven swimming pools stacked into one tower — and since 2026, visible war damage on the skyline.
- Palm JumeirahSand and stone stacked on the Persian Gulf to form a palm shape — only legible from the air, and reportedly still sinking 5 mm every year.
- Rose Tower (Rose Rayhaan by Rotana)A 333-metre hotel on Sheikh Zayed Road that actually outreaches the Burj Al Arab — and most people walk past it.
- Princess TowerFor three years this 413-metre block of apartments was the tallest place anyone called home on Earth.