Jeddah Tower

Jeddah Tower is a supertall skyscraper rising north of Jeddah, designed to become the tallest building in the world. Planned to exceed one full kilometre in height, it is the centrepiece of Jeddah Economic City, an entirely new district taking shape on the Red Sea coast at the northern edge of the existing city.

Its ambition is deliberately record-breaking. Conceived by the American architect Adrian Smith, who also designed Dubai's Burj Khalifa, the tower is intended to surpass that building and pass the symbolic one-thousand-metre mark, a threshold no structure has yet reached. Its sleek, three-winged form tapers to a needle-like spire engineered to slice cleanly through the strong coastal winds while cutting the sway felt at the top.

Progress has been anything but smooth. Construction began in 2013 but stalled for several years amid financial disputes and political upheaval, leaving the concrete core standing incomplete against the skyline for much of the last decade. Work has periodically resumed, and the project remains a potent symbol of the kingdom's soaring architectural aspirations even as its completion date keeps slipping further into the future.

For now it is a landmark to observe from a distance rather than visit. The tower is a working construction site, closed to the public, and the surrounding economic city is still largely undeveloped desert and road. Travellers can see its growing silhouette from the northern approaches to Jeddah and along the coast, and follow its slow progress as a marker of the region's building boom. Pair a look at the skyline with the far more visitor-ready historic district of Al-Balad in the older city to the south. Al-Balad's coral-stone houses and lively lanes, easily reached by taxi, make a rewarding half day the tower cannot yet offer.