10 Fun Facts about the Burj Khalifa

We’ve visited some of the world’s record setters like the world’s largest pumpkin festival, the world’s northernmost city and the world’s largest wine barrel. So it should be no surprise that standing on the observation deck of the Burj Khalifa was also on our bucket list.
Not only is the Burj Khalifa the world’s tallest building, it impressively breaks several other records. Here are 10 fun facts about the Burj Khalifa we learned on our visit that we hope also inspire you to head to the top of the world’s tallest building. Just don’t forget to book your Burj Khalifa skip the line tickets before you go.

Facts about the Burj Khalifa

The Burj Khalifa is the world’s tallest building
1. The Burj Khalifa height is a staggering 828 meters (2716.5 feet) tall, soaring over Dubai. It’s three times as tall as the Eiffel Tower and nearly twice as tall as the Empire State Building. Laid end to end, its pieces stretch over a quarter of the way around the world. It’s cloud-piercing height is certainly one of the most impressive facts about Burj Khalifa.

Views of the Dubai Fountain from the top of the Burj Khalifa
2. Aside from holding the world record for being the tallest building in the world, the Burj Khalifa holds six other world records. The Burj Khalifa is also the tallest freestanding structure in the world, has the highest number of stories in the world, has the highest occupied floor in the world, has the highest outdoor observation deck in the world, has the elevator with longest travel distance in the world, and has the tallest service elevator in the world.


Views of Dubai and stretching out over the Persian Gulf from the top of the Burj Khalifa
3. One of the most mind blowing Burj Khalifa facts is how much the materials weigh. To put things in to perspective, the weight of the concrete is equivalent to 100,000 elephants. The total weight of aluminum used on the Burj Khalifa is equivalent to that of five A380 aircraft.
The Dubai Fountain dances in front of the Burj Khalifa every 30 minutes from 6pm Wednesday through Sunday
4. Burj Khalifa fun facts that you can truly applaud are its sustainability and reuse of resources. Every year 15 million gallons of water are collected sustainably. The water is used for irrigation to water the landscaping and plants, for the cooling system and to supply the Dubai Fountain.

5. Some Burj Khalifa trivia about the elevators: the building has the longest single running elevator, which is 140 floors. The Burj Khalifa elevator speed is 10 meters per second, making the elevators among the fastest in the world. The Burj Khalifa elevator time to reach the observation deck on the 124th floor is only one minute.

Craning our necks to look up at the sphere from the ground level
6. One of the lesser known and more interesting facts about Burj Khalifa is that the tip of the sphere of the Burj Khalifa can be seen from up to 95 kilometers away.

7. Fairly known Burj Khalifa information is that at the peak of construction, 12,000 workers worked on the building per day.
8. Of course, you can’t leave out how the materials and man hours measure up when talking about interesting facts about the Burj Khalifa. It took more than 110,000 tons of concrete, 55,000 tons of steel rebar, and 22 million man-hours to complete the Burj Khalifa.
The Burj Khalifa still stretches up for many more stories from the observation deck on the 124th floor
9. Exactly how long did it take to build the Burj Khalifa? Excavation began in January 2004. Six years later, the Burj Khalifa finally opened in January 2010.
The spire is designed to resemble the Hymenocallis flower
10. Another of the Burj Khalifa interesting facts is that it is designed to resemble the Hymenocallis flower. The central core emerges at the top and culminates in a sculpted spire.

That’s a lot of facts about the world’s tallest building. What is the Burj Khalifa used for anyway? It’s actually a multi-use building that has restaurants, a hotel, residential apartments, office space and is a tourist attraction with its observation decks. Ready to visit?

• I think we must have said what a sheer genius The Sheik is to have the insight to build up this empire out of almost nothing in the desert countless times. Amongst the buildings you can quickly forget you are in the middle of the desert and even in the Middle East. Dubai truly is an amazing place.
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• (pirámids)that still standing and a lot of those buildings nobody knows how they figure it out…….like observatories, and many jewels made by Egyptians, Aztecs. Olmecs. Incas……etc etc.

1. Is it just me that thinks it is not natural for a human to be in a building stretching a quarter of the way round the world? The negative side of me thinks you are f**** in a earthquake or a tsunami.

• That is true, Natalie! There are special evacuation plans in place should anything ever happen and let’s hope that is never the case.
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  • construction, features and various records the building holds. We took photos of the various facts we thought were most interesting from the presentation. This is one of them.
• dhama says
• you really enjoyed the Bellagio style fountain show that happens every night at the base of this building
• Yes, we did. We used to live in Las Vegas very close to the Bellagio, so it was a reminder of all the times we’d walk over to the Strip and watch the fountains
• I agree, Anne! I’m not afraid of heights, but it doesn’t feel like you are as high as you are when looking out. Definitely worth a visit.

1. I think I took one of the exact same pictures that you did! It was really interesting to get a view from so high up. We were (maturely) thrilled to think of using the world’s highest toilets but the line in the ladies’ room was too long to be worth the claim to fame! Did you see the funny pictures they do of people climbing, falling off, etc? Those were tempting but way too expensive – clever though. Wonder if we were there around the same time – week of March 14th?

• . 10 m taller than Burj Khalifa. And Burj Khalifa has 163 floors, Then, Sky City has 220.

1. And the tallest constructing building NOW is the Kingdom Tower, 1,000 m tall, 3,280 ft, 200 floors, and the construction starts at the end of 2013. It will be completed on 2019. So 5/6 years to be built.
2. And the tallest planning building (actually it’s so big) Is X-seed 4000, 4,000 meters, 13,120 feet, 800 floors.
3. It is half height of the Mount Everest (the tallest mountain in the world), in Nepal and Tibet.
4. And the tallest anything is the Space Elevator in Indonesia. It will be completed in 2120, so I am already 114 years old when 2120, and now I am 7 years old. My birthday is Oct 25 2006.
5. And now, i forgot to say, X-Seed 4000 will be built in Tokyo, Japan.
6. And now, I forgot to say, the height of the Sky City in China (in feet) is 2,748.64. So thats all for now ., Bye!!!!!!!!!!!!

• Thanks for your comment Brandon, but Burj Khalifa is the tallest building in the world as the other buildings you mention are not complete. So until then, Burj Khalifa gets the distinction.
• Sky City was cancelled due to lack of design detail and doubts about its structural integrity. Many people think it’s actually a marketing ploy and was never intended to be completed. I think you will find similar information about the other buildings you list.