L. Miller Minutes

One of the notable features of the Makkah cityscape (if not the most notable) is The Makkah Royal Clock Tower. It’s part of a tower complex megastructure called The Clock Towers (technically called Abraj al Sa’a, meaning Towers of the Clock, but more commonly called Abraj al Bait meaning Towers of the House).

The complex is comprised of the main central tower, The Makkah Royal Clock Tower, which has 102 floors, and 6 surrounding buildings: four 55+ floor tall towers, and two 46 floor tall towers. Construction started in 2002 was all finished in 2012. Some side facts for those who care about such things: The Makkah Royal Clock Tower is the tallest clock tower in the world, and it has the largest clock face of any clock in the world.

It’s a little difficult to grasp the scale of the structure in person, especially since there are hills throughout the city obfuscating the view of the building in totality, but for a sense of its scale, the green jewel above the clock is 8 stories tall and contains a science center and observation deck.

The clocktower can be seen from virtually everywhere inside the city and from a couple miles outside of the city. This is due to the layout of Makkah: the Masjid al Haram with the Kaaba is in the very center of the city, and the Clock Tower is a only few hundred yards away from it. Moving outward from the city center are highway-rings – four of them, with the First Ring Road circling just around the Masjid al Haram, and the furthest Fourth Ring Road circling the city proper. Many of the streets in the neighborhoods of Makkah point directly to the city center, so a view of the clock tower can almost always be seen.

_{The Clock Tower as seen from the Dhiyafah neighborhood. Many of the streets in Makkah have the clocktower in the background. Taken with Google Pixel 8.}

The Clock Tower itself is a bit polarizing in terms of design. While I personally don’t have strong opinions on architecture (the German designers of the Clock Tower can breathe a sigh of relief) nor do I really care to opine on the question of what-is-opulence, I do find the Clock Tower to be an interesting sight in the evenings due to the way the it reflects sunlight in a gold hue and how breaks up the otherwise rocky horizon. When it lights up at night, it is a bold sight to be in the background of scenes when driving around the city. Also, to me and probably to other fans of Lord of the Rings, it bears a resemblance to Barad-dûr. My own building tastes would have likely resulted in a building that looked more minimal (or boring) to everyday folk.

_{The Clock Tower stands approximately 60 stories higher than the surrounding buildings and lights up green at night. Taken with Google Pixel 8.}

Cheers.