Burj Khalifa nee Dubai has been bestowed the title of the tallest skyscraper in the world on 4th January 2010 amongst a blaze of fireworks. After being called “Burj Dubai” while under construction, this half-mile-high tower got rechristened as “Burj Khalifa”.

Burj now stands out prominently against the horizon. It is visible across dozens of miles of rolling sand dunes outside Dubai. From the air, the spire appears as an almost solitary, slender needle.

Renamed In Honour

The unexpected announcement of renaming this tapering metal-and-glass spire as Burj Khalifa was to honor the Abu Dhabi leader who is also president of the UAE. He rescued Dubai from last year’s financial crisis, during which Dubai collapsed by nearly half - the result of easy credit and overbuilding during a real estate bubble that has since burst. Riding to the rescue was Sheik Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the ruler of oil-rich neighbor Abu Dhabi, which pumped tens of billions of dollars into Dubai last year as it struggled to pay enormous debts.

Highlights

This opening ceremony revealed the height of the skyscraper as 2,717 feet (828 meters) from the desert. But the number of floors in this building is still a well-guarded secret. Mohammed Alabbar, chairman of the tower's developer Emaar Properties, initially said it had "more than 200" stories, but he later backtracked to more than 165 inhabitable floors, given its tapered top. Promotional materials sent before the tower's opening claimed it had 160 stories.

The Burj is the centerpiece of a 500-acre development that officials hope will become a new central residential and commercial district in this sprawling and often disconnected city.

The $1.5 billion "vertical city" consists of luxury apartments and offices and a hotel designed by Giorgio Armani also plans to have the world's highest mosque (158th floor) and swimming pool (76th floor). An observation deck on the 124th floor opens to the public Tuesday, with adult tickets starting at 100 Dirham, or just over $27 apiece.

Safety Measures

The groundbreaking tower was designed by Chicago-based Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, which has a long track record in engineering some of the world's tallest buildings, including the Willis Tower.

Developers say they are confident about the safety of the tower, which is nearly twice the height of New York's Empire State Building.

Greg Sang, Emaar's director of projects, said the Burj Khalifa has "refuge floors" at 25 to 30-storey intervals that are more fire resistant and have separate air supplies in case of emergency. Its reinforced concrete structure, he said, makes it stronger than steel-frame skyscrapers. A plane won't be able to slice through the Burj like it did through the steel columns of the World Trade Center.

At their peak, some apartments in the Burj were selling for more than $1,900 per square foot, although they now can go for less than half that, said Heather Wipperman Amiji, chief executive of Dubai real estate consultancy Investment Boutique.