Jeddah Tower

The kilometer-high tower rising in Jeddah. Jeddah Tower is under construction and planned to be the first building one kilometer tall. Here is where it stands in 2026 and what it will hold.

Jeddah Tower under construction in September 2025

Jeddah Tower, September 2025: NorthAbhor, CC BY 4.0

A building aiming for one kilometer

Jeddah Tower is planned to be the first building in history to reach one kilometer, about 1,000 meters. When it is complete, it is expected to stand at least 180 meters taller than the Burj Khalifa and take the title of the world's tallest building. For now it is still under construction, so the Burj Khalifa keeps the record.

The tower was designed by Adrian Smith and Gordon Gill of AS+GG Architecture. Adrian Smith also led the design of the Burj Khalifa earlier in his career, so the two giants share a designer.

Paused, then racing upward

Structural work stopped in January 2018, when roughly a third of the tower had been built. After years of quiet, a new call for proposals came in 2023 and construction restarted in January 2025. Progress has been fast since then: the tower reached its 100th floor in April 2026.

Current estimates put completion as early as 2028, though dates for projects this large often move. We will update this page as the tower climbs.

What it will hold

The plans call for a luxury hotel, serviced apartments, offices and homes, topped by what is expected to be the world's highest observation deck. The tower is the centerpiece of a new waterfront district north of central Jeddah, along the Red Sea coast.

For anyone who loves Jeddah, it is a skyline to watch. A sunset drive along the Corniche, with the tower growing on the horizon, is already one of the city's best views.

How tall is one kilometer

One kilometer is hard to picture. Stand three Eiffel Towers on top of each other and you are close. At that height, engineers have to think about wind, sway and how to move thousands of people up and down every day, so the tower uses a slim, tapering three-sided shape that helps break up the wind around it.

Getting concrete and steel that high is a challenge of its own. Each new floor is a small record of its own, and observers around the world follow the progress through photos taken from across the city.

Once it opens, the view from the top should stretch far over the Red Sea and the desert. Until then, Jeddah Tower is a symbol of a city that is building upward, and a reminder that the race for the sky is not over.

Media credits

Text written by Hala Habibi.

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