Makkah Clock Tower Is Ticking
This is very refreshing: The giant clock of Makkah is all set to tick home a new time standard, as some scholars believe that it will be an ideal alternative to the Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).Many scholars are of the opinion that Makkah Time can provide the world an alternative to the GMT. These people have scientific arguments to back their contention, as Makkah is situated in the center of the world.
The tower featuring the world’s largest clock also includes a Lunar Observation Center and an Islamic Museum. While the Royal Clock will announce daily prayers, the Lunar Observation Center and Islamic Museum will serve to protect the heritage for future generations. The observatory will also be used to sight the moon during the holy months. On special occasions, 16 bands of vertical lights will shoot some 10 km up into the sky.
And: The project has been rated the largest architectural building in view of the total area, which exceeds 1.4 million sq m. Designed using Islamic architecture, it contains seven adjacent towers, with 6,000 housing units, and has over SR6 billion ($1.6 billion) in investments, it added.
The 577-meter Makkah Clock Tower when completed will be the tallest in the world — taller than the Palace of Culture and Science in Warsaw, the Big Ben in London, Rajabai Clock Tower in Mumbai, and the Allen-Bradley Clock Tower in Milwaukee.
The giant giant clock tower will be completed before the end of this year and will be linked to Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). UTC - also referred to as Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) or Universal Time (UT) or "Zulu" - is an international time scale used in astronomical and aviation publications, weather products, and other documents. GMT or UTC nominally reflects the mean solar time along the Earth's prime meridian. And is expressed using a 24-hour clock but can be converted into a 12-hour clock: AM and PM.
Each face of the Makkah Clock Tower measures slightly over 46 meters in diameter, and once a spire is added the tower will stand almost 610 meters tall. The tower will remind people to pray by flashing green and white lights that can be seen from about a 30km distance. The clock will run on Arabia Standard Time, which is Hadhramaut time, which is three hours ahead of Greenwich Mean Time. Makkah, as it is in a zero-magnetic zone due to its alignment with the Magnetic North, is the true center of the earth. The Makkah Clock Tower has started a trial run since Wednesday morning. Just in time for Ramadhan.
