Abraj Al-Bait
Abraj Al-Bait,
complex of seven government-owned, mixed-use buildings in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. The most impressive structure, the Makkah Royal Clock Tower, is the tallest building in Saudi Arabia, at 1,972 ft (601 m) high, and one of the tallest in the world; it has the world's largest clock face. Designed by the German architectural firm SL Rasch and developed (2002–12) by the Saudi Bin Laden Group, the complex contains luxury hotels and apartments, shopping malls, restaurants, and parking garages, and towers over the neighboring Great Mosque. It is part of the King Abdulaziz Endowment Project, created to modernize the city and cater to the millions of hajjhajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, one of the five basic requirements (arkan or "pillars") of Islam. Its annual observance corresponds to the major holy day id al-adha, itself a commemoration of Abraham's readiness to sacrifice his son on Divine orders.
..... Click the link for more information. pilgrims who visit Mecca every year. Its construction required the demolition of an 18th-century Ottoman fortress.