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Abraj Al Bait
Abraj Al Bait is a group of very tall towers in Mecca. The tallest one has a giant clock near the top!
Abraj Al Bait is a group of seven hotel towers in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, beside the city's Great Mosque. In the middle rises the Makkah Royal Clock Tower, 601 meters tall to the tip of its spire, with a huge clock near the top. It was finished in 2012.
Abraj Al Bait (the Clock Towers) is a complex of seven hotel towers overlooking the Great Mosque of Mecca. Its centerpiece, the Makkah Royal Clock Tower, was built from 2002 to 2012 and rises 601 m to the tip of its crescent-topped spire, according to the Skyscraper Museum, which calls its clock the world's largest.
Photo: King Eliot, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Discover Abraj Al Bait
Abraj Al Bait is in the city of Mecca, in Saudi Arabia. It is a group of tall towers.
The middle tower is the tallest. A huge clock sits near its top.
Abraj Al Bait stands in Mecca, a city in Saudi Arabia, right beside the Great Mosque. It is also called the Clock Towers.
The complex has seven skyscraper hotels for visitors on their pilgrimage. In the middle rises the Makkah Royal Clock Tower. The Skyscraper Museum gives its height as 601 meters to the tip of its spire.
The Skyscraper Museum in New York describes the Makkah Royal Clock Tower as the centerpiece of the Abraj Al Bait complex of seven luxury hotels, which overlook the Kaaba and the Great Mosque of Mecca, the focus of pilgrims on the hajj and umrah. It lists the tower at 601 m (1,972 ft) to the tip of its crescent spire, with 123 floors.
The complex's owners call it the Clock Towers and describe it as the largest hotel complex in the world. The tower also has another name, the King Abdulaziz Endowment Tower.
- Where
- beside the Great Mosque, Mecca, Saudi Arabia
- Built
- 2002–2012 (the clock tower)
- Height
- 601 m to the tip of the clock tower's spire
- Towers
- seven hotel towers
A clock on top of a tower
Building work began in 2002.
The clock tower was finished in 2012. It took about ten years!
The clock tower was proposed in 2002, and construction started the same year.
The clock tower at the top was a separate job from the hotel tower below it, which was already under construction, and German engineers built it. The Skyscraper Museum gives 2012 as the year the clock tower was completed.
The Skyscraper Museum lists 2002 for both the proposal and the start of construction, and 2012 for completion. The architect was Dar al-Handasah Shair & Partners, which also worked as structural and building-services engineer.
The clock tower itself was a separate commission from the high-rise hotel below, which was already under construction. The German firm SL Rasch, the architect of record, began its work 347 m above the ground, adding a steel structure that weighs 12,000 tons.
Steel high above the city
The top part of the tower is made of steel.
It weighs 12,000 tons!
The top of the clock tower starts 347 meters above the ground. From there up, engineers built the clock tower as a steel structure that weighs 12,000 tons.
The tower has 123 floors. Inside the spire there is an exhibition space and an observation deck, and the very top ends in a golden crescent.
SL Rasch's part of the tower, a steel structure weighing 12,000 tons, begins 347 m up, above the hotel tower that was already under construction. Above the clock, the spire holds an exhibition space and an observation deck and ends in a golden crescent; the Skyscraper Museum gives the tip as 601 m above the ground.
The museum lists 123 floors and a gross floor area of 310,638 square meters (3,343,676 square feet).
Hotels, shops and a giant clock
The big clock can be seen from far away.
At the bottom of the towers, there are more than 600 shops!
The clock near the top of the tower is so big that the Skyscraper Museum calls it the world's largest clock.
The seven towers are hotels with views of the Great Mosque. Their first seven floors hold a shopping center with more than 600 shops, as well as a medical clinic and a civil defense station, so visitors can find what they need in one place.
The Skyscraper Museum calls the tower's clock the world's largest. Below it, the first seven floors of the towers hold the Clock Towers Shopping Center: about 190,000 square meters with more than 600 shops, according to the owners, together with a medical clinic and a civil defense station.
The owners say the complex can handle 60,000 visitors at any one time and welcomes more than 4 million hotel guests a year; they describe the hotels as serving visitors on their pilgrimage.
- Clock
- called the world's largest clock by the Skyscraper Museum
- Shopping center
- more than 600 shops on the first seven floors
- Floors
- 123 in the clock tower
Seen from the Great Mosque
This photo was taken from the Great Mosque. Can you find the clock? Can you see a crane, too?
This photo was taken in June 2012 from the Great Mosque, the year the clock tower was completed. The clock tower rises in the middle, with hotel towers on both sides.
On the left, one tower still has colored covers at its top and a crane beside it. At the bottom you can see a row of the mosque's pointed arches.
The photograph (June 2012, uploaded by King Eliot to Wikimedia Commons) was taken from the Masjid al-Haram looking up at the complex. The clock tower stands in the center, its clock face and spire above a block of hotel floors, with hotel towers on each side.
On the left, a tower still has colored covers along its top and a crane beside it, while the bottom of the picture shows a long row of the mosque's pointed arches. The year of the photo is the year the Skyscraper Museum gives for the tower's completion.
Amazing facts
-
The clock on the tower is huge!
The Skyscraper Museum calls the clock on the Makkah Royal Clock Tower the largest clock in the world.
The Skyscraper Museum describes the tower's clock as the world's largest; the steel top of the tower begins 347 m above the ground.
-
The top of the tower is made of heavy steel!
The steel structure at the top of the clock tower weighs 12,000 tons.
The German firm SL Rasch began the clock and spire 347 m up, on a steel structure weighing 12,000 tons.
-
There are more than 600 shops in the towers!
The first seven floors of the towers hold a shopping center with more than 600 shops.
The Clock Towers Shopping Center fills the first seven floors, about 190,000 square meters, with more than 600 shops, according to the owners.
Words to know
- skyscraper
- a very tall building with many floors
- spire
- a tall, pointed top on a building
- crescent
- a curved shape like a thin slice of the Moon
- complex
- a group of buildings that belong together
- engineer
- a person who plans how to build strong structures and machines
- crane
- a tall machine that lifts heavy things on building sites
Discovery challenge
-
What is near the top of the tallest tower?
What sits near the top of the Makkah Royal Clock Tower?
What does the Skyscraper Museum call the world's largest of its kind on this tower?
- A giant clock
- A swimming pool
- A garden
Show the answer
A giant clock
A giant clock!
A huge clock, below the spire.
Its clock, which the museum calls the world's largest.
-
In which country is Abraj Al Bait?
In which country is the city of Mecca, home of Abraj Al Bait?
In which country does the Abraj Al Bait complex overlook the Great Mosque of Mecca?
- Saudi Arabia
- Japan
- Brazil
Show the answer
Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia!
Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia; the complex stands in Mecca.
-
What shape is at the very top of the tower?
What golden shape tops the clock tower's spire?
The Skyscraper Museum measures the tower's 601 m to the tip of what?
- A crescent
- A star
- A ball
Show the answer
A crescent
A golden crescent!
A golden crescent.
To the tip of its crescent spire.
-
How many hotel towers are there?
How many hotel towers make up Abraj Al Bait?
How many hotel towers form the Abraj Al Bait complex?
- 7
- 2
- 20
Show the answer
7
Seven!
Seven hotel towers.
Seven hotels, with the clock tower as the centerpiece.
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Al-Masjid al-Haram
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Mecca
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For parents & teachers
What children will learn
- Locate Mecca in Saudi Arabia and describe the Abraj Al Bait towers and their clock.
- Explain how the clock and spire were added on a steel structure high above the ground.
- Read big numbers (601 m, 123 floors, 12,000 tons) and compare them with familiar things.
Recommended ages: 4 to 17 · About 15 minutes
Talk about it
- Why might a city build big hotels close to a place that many visitors travel to?
- The clock tower's top was built 347 meters above the ground. What problems might engineers face working so high up?
- The towers have shops, a clinic and hotels in one place. What else would visitors need?
Try at home or in class
- Make a paper clock face and practice reading the hands. Then imagine it big enough to see from far away.
- Stack building blocks into a tower and add a small 'spire' on top. What helps the top stay steady?
Key vocabulary: skyscraper, spire, crescent, complex, engineer, crane
Where these facts come from
- Wikidata , Wikimedia Foundation (CC0 1.0)
- Makkah Royal Clock Tower , The Skyscraper Museum (Supertall!)
- The Clock Towers , The Clock Towers
- File:Abraj-al-Bait-Towers.JPG , Wikimedia Commons
- Wikimedia Commons , Wikimedia Foundation (Per file (public domain, CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA); see each media record)
Checked, not yet human-reviewed. Last updated November 1, 2026. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.