Move over, Pisa. Capital Gate building leans five times more
Move over, Pisa. Capital Gate building leans five times more Chalk another record to the United Arab Emirates' collection.
The Capital Gate building in the desert kingdom's capital, Abu Dhabi, has been certified by the Guinness World Records as the 'World's Furthest Leaning Man-made Tower.'
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| Lean mean building: The 35-storey Abu Dhabi building has an 18-degree slope, compared with four degrees for the Italian bell tower. Pic/AFP |
How far does it lean? Nearly five times farther than the Leaning Tower of Pisa in Italy.
The 35-storey Abu Dhabi building has an 18-degree slope, compared with four degrees for the freestanding bell tower.
But unlike the tower in Pisa, the Capital Gate building has been deliberately engineered to slant.
The floor plates are stacked vertically up to the 12th floor, after which they are staggered over each other by between 300 mm to 1,400 mm -- giving the tower its lean, the owners said.
"It is a signature building which speaks to the foresight of the emirate," said Sheikh Sultan Bin Tahnoon al Nahyan, the chairman of the building's owner, Abu Dhabi National Exhibitions Company.
The mixed-use building will be ready for occupancy at the end of the year. It is featured in a new National Geographic documentary, called 'Megastructures'.
About the Leaning Tower of Pisa The tower was begun over 800 years ago, in 1173. It had only reached a height of 10 metres when the foundations started to slip. Attempts were made to correct this but the structure was completed as a leaning tower in 1350, about 175 years after the work had first started. It has continued leaning a millimetre each year.
