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JABAL OMAR The Jabal Omar Development Company is at the heart of rede- velopment in Makkah and was set up to invest an estimated SAR12 billion (US$3.2 billion) in proj- ects allocating building contracts that will transform the area and provide accommodation for millions of additional visitors. The company is investing in 40
residential towers to accommo- date 160,000 pilgrims, as well as a prayer area for 200,000 worship- pers. Ten hotels are expected to be completed during 2013. An electronic signage board
accommodation for visitors, with some rooms featuring a view of the Holy Mosque. In addition, the towers complex has a fi ve-storey shopping mall with 4,000 shops, parking for more than a thousand vehicles, homes and two heliports, while the hotel boasts a conference centre for 1,200 people and a ball- room that can accommodate 1,800. The highest residential fl oor is
450-metres from ground level to just below the clock tower, which is half as high as the top of the Eiffel Tower in France. Each of the four clock faces is 43 metres high, around half the length of a football pitch, while the minute hand alone is more than 10 times the height of an average man. Above the clocks, the building
is topped with a 93-metre spire capped with a 23-metre golden crescent. The spire itself has a black observation pod at the bottom, which contains a control tower inside, referred to as the Lunar Observation Center, responsible for sighting the moon on holy days. At the base of the tower’s
minaret are loudspeakers that emit prayer calls to a distance of seven kilometres, while nearly 21,000 lamps illumi- nate the surrounding area to a distance of 30 kilometres.
37 6 Pilgrims praying in Madinah
7 Embroiderers working on the kiswah, the gold cloth which is draped around the Ka’aba
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that overlooks the central area by the Holy Mosque has been erected to count down the days to the development’s opening. This development is just one of fi ve giant projects in the city. More than 600 properties have been selected for redevelopment in the area surrounding the Sacred Mosque and the latest phase involves constructing two fi ve- star hotels with 935 rooms and six three-star hotels comprising
1,255 rooms. Residential build- ings of up to 20 storeys will accommodate 100,000 people, 520 restaurants and 4,360 commercial and retail units. When fi nished, the develop-
ment will have air-conditioned plazas for 100,000 worshippers, open courtyards for 120,000 people and a car park that can accommodate 10,000 vehicles.
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