Burj Khalifa

Where it stands. The Burj Khalifa rises from Downtown Dubai at the First Interchange of Sheikh Zayed Road, roughly two kilometres inland from the Gulf and midway between the old creek quarters of Deira and Bur Dubai and the newer towers of Dubai Marina. Its total height is 829.8 metres, with 828 metres to the top of a 242.6-metre spire and 163 usable floors, figures that have kept it the tallest structure on earth since it topped out in 2009. Skidmore, Owings & Merrill designed it, with Adrian Smith as chief architect and Bill Baker as structural engineer. The plan is a buttressed core: a hexagonal concrete spine braced by three wings in a Y shape that steps back in stages as the tower climbs, so that no single face ever presents a flat wall to the wind and no vortex can build up along its full height.

How it was built. Construction began on 12 January 2004, the exterior was completed on 1 October 2009, and the building opened on 4 January 2010. The primary structure is high-performance reinforced concrete, poured at night in the hot months and pumped to record heights, switching to structural steel for the spire near the summit; some of that steel was salvaged from the demolished Palace of the Republic in East Berlin. The cladding runs to more than 26,000 glass panels set in aluminium and textured stainless steel, specified to survive surface temperatures that would craze ordinary glazing. The tower was called Burj Dubai throughout construction and was renamed at the opening ceremony for Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, after Abu Dhabi and the federal government supported Dubai through the debt crisis of 2008 and 2009.

On screen. The tower carries one of the most recognisable action sequences of the last twenty years. In Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011), directed by Brad Bird, Ethan Hunt has to reach a server room by climbing the outside of the building above the 120th floor using adhesive gloves, one of which fails partway up. The unit filmed in Dubai in late 2010 and early 2011 with IMAX cameras. Tom Cruise performed the exterior work himself, secured at all times by multiple cables that Industrial Light & Magic erased in post-production; the vertigo in the finished scene comes from the real depth of field below him rather than from a set. Paula Patton and Lea Seydoux also declined doubles for their fight in the same section of the film. Dubai contributed the sandstorm car chase that follows, and the film held its world premiere at the Dubai International Film Festival on 7 December 2011, which is why the tower features so heavily in its marketing.

What you actually see today. Visitors reach two separate observation levels. At the Top occupies floors 124 and 125 at about 452 metres, with an outdoor terrace and telescopes; At the Top SKY sits on level 148 at 555 metres and is sold as a slower, lounge-style visit with a separate lift. The ride up takes about a minute. Looking down, the geometry of Dubai is legible in a way it never is at street level: the reclaimed fronds of Palm Jumeirah to the west, the ruler-straight line of Sheikh Zayed Road running south, the low sand-coloured sprawl of the older city to the north-east, and the desert edge dissolving into haze inland. The lower floors house the Armani Hotel and a long run of private residences, which is why the public route is tightly channelled.

The ground level. The base is arguably the better photographic position. Burj Khalifa Lake, an artificial basin of about 12 hectares, holds the Dubai Fountain, a WET Design system 275 metres long whose strongest jets throw water some 152 metres into the air in choreographed evening shows at half-hour intervals. Dubai Mall, opened on 4 November 2008, wraps the north-east side; Souk Al Bahar and the promenade across the water give the cleanest full-height view of the tower, especially in the twenty minutes after sunset when the facade lighting comes up but the sky still has colour. The plaza also carries the LED display that turns the whole east face into a screen on national holidays.

Getting there and timing. The Dubai Metro Red Line stops at Burj Khalifa/Dubai Mall, connected to the mall by a long air-conditioned walkway of about ten to fifteen minutes; taxis drop closer. November to March is the workable season, with daytime highs in the twenties and the clearest air. Between June and September temperatures pass 45 degrees and humidity blurs the view. Timed-entry tickets for sunset slots are the first to sell out and cost noticeably more than midday ones; midday visits are cheaper but hazier, and early morning gives the sharpest horizon.