In Saudi Arabia, a kilometer-high skyscraper will be built

Riyadh - A thousand-meter high skyscraper is to be built in the Saudi Arabian port city of Jeddah on the Red Sea, along with an extensive commercial and residential center, all valued at $26.6 billion (about 530 billion crowns). This was announced today by the Kingdom group, which belongs to the project's client, Saudi Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal. It will be the tallest building in the world. By the prince's decision, the project will be implemented by the Dubai-based company Emaar, as reported by the AFP agency today.
    The Kingdom Tower and the surrounding Jeddah (Djedda) Kingdom City are to be built near the international airport of this city, covering a total area of 23 square kilometers. The skyscraper is to include, among other things, a super-luxury hotel. Currently, the tallest building in the world is the Burj Dubai in Dubai, which reaches a height of 800 meters but is not yet completed. Emaar is also constructing this skyscraper.
    The Kingdom Tower project was announced in 2003. The American company Bechtel was supposed to supervise the construction, but it withdrew from the project at the beginning of this year, AFP wrote.
    Last spring, however, it was announced that Al-Waleed wanted to build a building called Mile High Tower in Jeddah, which was to be one mile high, or about 1600 meters. This year, however, reports came that due to the financial crisis he had abandoned that idea. The Wikipedia site also states that technical studies raised doubts about whether the ground could support such a massive structure and that the project was changed so that the building would be "up to 500 meters shorter."
    Today's AFP report does not specify whether the one-kilometer "Kingdom Tower" is a scaled-back version of the "Mile High Tower" project or if it is an independent plan.
    Prince Al-Waleed belongs to the Saudi ruling family and is one of the richest people in the world. His fortune was estimated last year at approximately 350 billion crowns.