Ponte City Apartments vs Mecca Royal Clock Tower

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Ponte City is a skyscraper at the Berea Area of Johannesburg, South Africa, just next to Hillbrow.

It was developed in 1975 to a height of 173 m (567.6 ft), which makes it the tallest residential skyscraper in Africa. The 55-story building is cylindrical, with an open centre allowing additional light to the apartments. The centre space is known as'the core' and rises above an uneven rock floor.



When built, Ponte City was seen as an extremely desirable address due to its views over all of Johannesburg and its environment. The neon sign on top of the building is the largest sign from the southern hemisphere and advertised for the Coca-Cola Company prior to 2000. It now advertises the South African mobile phone company Vodacom.

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