Opera house vs Mecca Royal Clock Tower Hotel

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The Sydney Opera House is a multi-venue performing arts Center at Sydney Harbour in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

It is among the 20th century's most famous and distinctive buildings.Designed by Danish architect Jørn Utzon, but completed by an Australian architectural group headed up by Peter Hall, the building was officially opened on 20 October 1973 after a gestation beginning with Utzon's 1957 choice as winner of an international design competition. The Government of New South Wales, led by the premier, Joseph Cahill, authorised work to start in 1958 with Utzon directing construction. The government's decision to construct Utzon's design is often overshadowed by conditions that followed, including cost and scheduling overruns as well as the architect's ultimate resignation.The building and its surrounds occupy all of Bennelong Point on Sydney Harbour, between Sydney Cove and Farm Cove, adjacent to the Sydney central business district and the Royal Botanic Gardens, and close by the Sydney Harbour Bridge. The construction comprises multiple performance venues, which together host well over 1,500 performances annually, attended by over 1.



2 million people. Performances are presented by numerous performing artists, including three resident companies: Opera Australia, the Sydney Theatre Company and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. As one of the most popular visitor attractions in Australia, the website is visited by over eight million people annually, and approximately 350,000 visitors take a guided tour of the building each year. The building is managed by the Sydney Opera House Trust, an agency of the New South Wales State Government. On 28 June 2007, the Sydney Opera House became a UNESCO World Heritage Site, having been listed on the (now defunct) Register of the National Estate since 1980, the National Trust of Australia register since 1983, the City of Sydney Heritage Inventory since 2000, the New South Wales State Heritage Register since 2003, and the Australian National Heritage List as 2005. Moreover, the Opera House was a finalist at the New7Wonders of Earth campaign list.

Source: Wikipedia

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The Abraj Al-Bait (Arabic: ????? ??????, romanized: ?Abr?? al-Bayt '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 which aims to update 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 comprises the Clock Tower Museum which occupies the top four floors of the tower.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 builder of this complex is that the Saudi Binladin Group, the Kingdom's largest construction firm. It's the world's second most expensive building with the whole cost of construction totalling US$15 billion. 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. The destruction of the historically important site in 2002 from the Saudi authorities sparked international outcry and a powerful response from Turkey.

Source: Wikipedia