Saudi Arabia's 3,000-foot-tall skyscraper will have the world's highest observation deck

kingdom tower
Smith Gill

Rising to a staggering 3,281 feet tall, Saudi Arabia's Jeddah Tower could one day set a world record as the tallest skyscraper on Earth. It will also have the world's tallest observation deck.

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Located in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, it's the brainchild of SWA Architects, the same firm behind the current world's tallest building, Burj Khalifa, in Dubai.

It's slated for completion sometime in 2019.

Here's what it'll look like.

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Jeddah Tower will feature an extensive network of restaurants, hotel rooms, apartments, parks, and a shopping mall. Basically, it's a city inside a skyscraper.

Jeddah Tower_Rendering2_Credit AS+GG Architecture
SWA Architecture

One of the tower's key features is its observation deck, located on the building's 157th floor. That's 55 stories higher than the deck at New York City's Freedom Tower, making it the tallest observation deck in the world.

kingdom tower observation deck
Forgemind ArchiMedia/Flickr
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Jeddah Tower will cost the Jeddah Economic Company and Saudi Arabia's Alinma Investment — the two groups financing the project — roughly $2.2 billion. That's about $700 million more than it cost to build Burj Khalifa and $1.6 billion less than the Freedom Tower.

Jeddah Tower_Rendering1_Credit AS+GG Architecture
SWA Architecure

For the last six years, crews have worked to complete the structure's 65 elevators, 200 hotel rooms, 439 apartments, and 2,205 parking spaces — all scattered among the 169 floors.

kingdom tower
Smith Gill
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Once it's complete, it'll join the fast-growing ranks of other "supertall" skyscrapers that are over 984 feet high. In the 1960s, there were just two supertall skyscrapers, and by 2010 there were 50. As of late last year, the total had risen to 100.

jeddah tower
Forgemind ArchiMedia/Flickr

Jeddah Tower isn't the only project vying for the title of world's tallest building. Plans for an even taller 3,779-foot structure, known as "The Bride," were recently unveiled in Iraq. Construction hasn't yet started on The Bride.

the bride of the gulf, tallest building, AMBS Architects, basra, iraq
AMBS Architects
Saudi Arabia Design Cities
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