Building to the Sky

Andy Keedwell

The tallest building in the world

From the top floor， almost one kilometre up， you can see the city and the red sands of the desert. There are many other large skyscrapers around you but none is as high as the one you have climbed—the Burj Khalifa Tower in Dubai. Below you are one hundred and sixty floors of offices， hotels and homes and it takes fifty-seven lifts to carry people up and down the tallest building in the world. Far， far down， visitors walk around a beautiful lake and water fountains dance in time to music.

Building high

People have always wanted to build as high as they can， often to show how wealthy or important they were. The Pyramids of Egypt were taller than any other structure for almost four thousand years—although many experts say that the Pyramids are not really buildings as nobody ever lived inside them. In Yemen， people have always built homes of mud they found nearby—traditional skyscrapers sometimes ten floors high. And in Tuscany， Italian lords built higher and higher towers to prove who was the richest in town.

Ways to build high

Today， Asia and the Middle East have some of the highest buildings around but the United States is really the home of the modern skyscraper. Architects and engineers in cities such as New York and Chicago in the late nineteenth century discovered ways to build higher than ever before. Two inventions helped them—first， improvements in ways to make steel， and the second， the invention of the elevator which meant people could travel easily up and down these tall buildings. The Burj Dubai has two thousand stairs—nobody would want to climb those every day！

How people feel

Some people love tall buildings like these but others hate them. Just after work began on the Eiffel Tower in 1887， a group of writers and painters tried to stop the construction of what they believed would be the ugliest building in Europe—although， of course， the Eiffel Tower was built anyway！ Some people find skyscraper cities such as Dubai extremely beautiful， while others prefer something much more traditional. However， people feel one thing is clear—the world will continue to build high！

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