Abraj Al Bait أبراج البيت Skyscraper hotels in Mecca Saudi Arabia Makkah Royal Clock Tower

The Abraj Al-Bait (Arabic: أبراج البيت‎ "Towers of the House") is a government-owned complex of seven skyscraper hotels in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. These towers are a part of the King Abdulaziz Endowment Project that aims to modernize the city in catering to its pilgrims. The central hotel tower, the Makkah Royal Clock Tower, has the world's largest clock face and is the third-tallest building and fifth-tallest freestanding structure in the world. The clock tower contains the Clock Tower Museum that occupies the top four floors of the tower.[5]

The building complex is metres away from the world's largest mosque and Islam's most sacred site, the Great Mosque of Mecca. The developer and contractor of the complex is the Saudi Binladin Group, the Kingdom's largest construction company.[3] It is the world's most expensive building with the total cost of construction totalling US$15 billion.[6] The complex was built after the demolition of the Ajyad Fortress, the 18th-century Ottoman citadel on top of a hill overlooking the Grand Mosque.[7] The destruction of the historically significant site in 2002 by the Saudi government sparked international outcry and a strong response from Turkey

The tallest tower in the complex is the tallest building in Saudi Arabia, with a height of 601 metres (1,972 feet). Currently it is the fifth-tallest freestanding structure in the world, surpassing the Ping An Finance Centre in Shenzhen, China but shorter than the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, UAE, the Tokyo Skytree in Tokyo, Japan, the Shanghai Tower in Shanghai, China, and the Canton Tower in Guangzhou, China.

The site of the complex is located across the piazza to the south from the main entrance (King Abdul-Aziz Gate) to the Masjid al Haram mosque, which houses the Kaaba. To accommodate worshippers visiting the Kaaba, the Abraj Al-Bait Towers has two large prayer rooms (one for men, one for women) capable of holding more than 10,000 people. The tallest tower in the complex also contains a five-star hotel, operated by Fairmont Hotels and Resorts, to help provide lodging for the millions of pilgrims that travel to Mecca annually to participate in the Hajj.

The project uses clock faces for each side of the main hotel tower. The highest residential floor stands at 370 m (1,210 ft), just below the media displays under the clock faces. At 43 m × 43 m (141 ft × 141 ft), these are the largest in the world. The roof of the clocks is 450 m (1,480 ft) above the ground, making them the world's most elevated architectural clocks. A 151-metre-tall (495 ft) spire has been added on top of the clock giving it a total height of 601 m (1,972 ft). Behind the clock faces there is an astronomy exhibition. In the spire base and the glass-covered floors (The Jewel) there is a scientific center which is used to sight the moon in the beginnings of the Islamic months, and to operate an atomic clock which controls the tower clocks.

The building is topped by a four-faced clock, visible from 25 kilometres (16 miles) away. The clock is the highest in the world at over 400 m (1,300 ft) above the ground. The clock faces are the largest in the world, surpassing the Cevahir Mall clock in Istanbul.

Each of the clock's four faces measures 43 m (141 ft) in diameter and are illuminated by 2 million LED lights, with four oriented edges, just above the clock alongside huge Arabic script reading: "God is [the] greatest" on the north and south faces and on the west and east "There is no god but Allah. Muhammad is the messenger of God.". Four golden domes on pillars on all the corners are also present. Another 21,000 white and green coloured lights, the same as the Saudi Flag, fitted at the top of the clock, flash to signal Islam's five-time daily prayers, and are visible as far as 30 km (19 mi) away. On special occasions such as new year, 16 bands of vertical lights shoot 10 km (6.2 mi) up into the sky. The clock's four faces are covered with 98 million pieces of glass mosaics. The Saudi coat of arms is displayed at the centre of each clock behind the dials. The minute hand is 23 m (75 ft) long, while the hour hand is 17 m (56 ft) long.

The clocks are topped by a 128-metre (420 ft) spire with a 23-metre-high (75 ft) golden crescent at the top. The spire has an eight-story glass-covered base (The Jewel) which belongs to a scientific center having its own small exhibition, another observation deck at 475 m (1,558 ft) and a prayer floor in 480 m (1,570 ft). The highest floor in The Jewel is the Control Tower Floor, which was planned to be used for controlling air traffic in the sky above Mecca