World's Tallest High-Rise Buildings :

The following is the most World’s Tallest Twenty High-Rise Buildings.

This data is based on reliable building information standards as outlined by the Emporis Standards Committe (ESC).

This listing is believed to be verified and updated till August 2007.

The ranking is based entirely on the buildings' structural height.

#	Building	City	Height	Height	Floors	Year
1.	Taipei 101	Taipei	509 m	1,671 ft	101	2004
2.	Petronas Tower 1	Kuala Lumpur	452 m	1,483 ft	88	1998
3.	Petronas Tower 2	Kuala Lumpur	452 m	1,483 ft	88	1998
4.	Sears Tower	Chicago	442 m	1,451 ft	108	1974
5.	Jin Mao Tower	Shanghai	421 m	1,380 ft	88	1999
6.	Two International Finance..	Hong Kong	415 m	1,362 ft	88	2003
7.	CITIC Plaza	Guangzhou	391 m	1,283 ft	80	1997
8.	Shun Hing Square	Shenzhen	384 m	1,260 ft	69	1996
9.	Empire State Building	New York City	381 m	1,250 ft	102	1931
10.	Central Plaza	Hong Kong	374 m	1,227 ft	78	1992
11.	Bank of China Tower	Hong Kong	367 m	1,205 ft	70	1990
12.	Emirates Office Tower	Dubai	355 m	1,163 ft	54	2000
13.	Tuntex Sky Tower	Kaohsiung	348 m	1,140 ft	85	1997
14.	Aon Center	Chicago	346 m	1,136 ft	83	1973
15.	The Center	Hong Kong	346 m	1,135 ft	73	1998
16.	John Hancock Center	Chicago	344 m	1,127 ft	100	1969
17.	Rose Tower	Dubai	333 m	1,093 ft	72	2007
18.	Shimao International Plaza..	Shanghai	333 m	1,093 ft	60	2006
19.	Minsheng Bank Building	Wuhan	331 m	1,087 ft	68	2007
20.	Ryugyong Hotel	Pyongyang	330 m	1,083 ft	105	1992

The Petronas Twin Towers

The Petronas Twin Towers are Kuala Lumpur’s most prominent landmark. At 452 meters-high, it is the world’s second highest structure and was built in 1998. The towers’ design and architecture are inspired by Islamic art with a modern outlook, reflected by its steel and glass façade.

A sky bridge connects the two towers mid-way, and it is here that visitors can come up and catch a bird’s eye view of the surrounding city.

At the base of the Twin Towers is a popular up market shopping mall, mostly for tourists and society’s upper class, called Suria KLCC, the mall houses a large array of expensive fashion shops and other elite stores such as Marks and Spencer.

The Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra is also located inside the Towers’ base. Outside, there is a beautifully-landscaped park where visitors can conduct recreational exercise or simply stroll around the marble paths and admire the fountains and flowers. There’s also a wading pool that’s free for children to swim in.

The Burj, Dubai

The Burj, Dubai will be the world's tallest building when it opens in 2009.

Its shape is inspired by the indigenous desert flowers that often appear as decorative patterns in Islamic architecture, but it also has an engineering purpose: The swirl shape ensures that the mass of the structure lessens as it reaches the top, making the structure steadier.

A mixed-use building developed by Dubai's Emaar Properties, the Burj Dubai will house shops, offices, residences, and entertainment venues.

The World, Dubai

Ever wish the world was smaller? This group of more than 250 man-made islands was designed to resemble the entire world when seen from the air. The islands, which range from 250,000 to 900,000 square feet, can be bought by individual developers or private owners, starting at $6.85 million.

The only way to get between each island is by boat...or yacht, given the clientele. A notable engineering feat, the project incorporates two protective breakwaters to protect the islands from waves, consisting of one submerged reef (the outer breakwater) and an above-water structure (the inner breakwater).

The Hydropolis Hotel, Dubai

The Hydropolis Hotel, Dubai is the world's first underwater luxury resort, brings new meaning to the "ocean-view room."

Situated 66 feet below the surface of the Persian Gulf, Hydropolis will feature 220 guest suites.

Reinforced by concrete and steel, its Flexiglas walls and bubble-shaped dome ceilings offer sights of fish and other sea creatures. It's scheduled to open in late 2007.

The Palm Islands

The three artificial islands that make up the Palm (comprising the Palm Jumeirah, the Palm Jebel Ali, and the Palm Deira are the world's biggest man-made islands. Each was built from a staggering 1 billion cubic meters of dredged sand and stone, taken from Dubai's sea bed and configured into individual islands and surrounding breakwaters. The complex will house a variety of tourist attractions, ranging from spas and diving sites to apartments and theaters. The entire complex is designed to collectively resemble a date palm tree when seen from the sky.

Ice Hotel Quebec, Canada

The structure is made out of ice and snow with ceilings as high as 5.4 meters (18 feet), walls covered with original artwork and furniture carved from ice blocks.

Ice Hotel Quebec, Canada has many rooms and theme suites, two exhibition rooms, a cinema, a magnificent chapel, a huge reception room, functional fireplaces and hot tubs and the famous Absolut Ice Bar. Covering a total surface of 3,000 square meters (30,000 square feet), the Ice Hotel is one of the most unique undertakings. In fact, 12,000 tons of snow and 400 tons of ice will be used during the five weeks it takes to make this architectural marvel.

The Ice Hotel is a completely unique experience in North America. An ice chapel connected to the hotel turns this quirky hotel into a potential destination wedding locale with a twist: couples tying the knot here tend to originate from warmer climes.

The Ice Lounge serves up drinks (like Pina Coolada) in thick ice glasses. It's one price for the first drink and refills come in a bit cheaper. The first drink allows you to take the solid ice souvenir glass home, says the bartender with a grin. Hot drinks are served, of course, in styrofoam cups.

The Ice Hotel abuts its partner property, the Station Touristique Duchesnay, where chilled Ice Hotel guests can head to for a hot meal at the Quatre-Temps Cafe-bar. You really have to work to find a bad meal in Quebec, and the Quatre-Temps Café-bar is no exception to that generalization.

A word of warning to those with tiny bladders: the Ice Hotel has community washrooms, something that makes those late night bathroom breaks a bit of a challenge.

Architectural Photography

Architectural Detailed PhotoGraphy of "Chichen Itza"


The job of an architectural photographer is to basically interpret another person's art.
A big part of it is light. Professional photographers may spend several days checking the building; appearance, atmosphere, building at different times, angles etc. They will also check what it looks like in evening with and without the lights on.The time of day and weather makes a lot of difference to the photo. A dull cloudy, rainy day can make the building look very boring, even flat. But have it one sunny, bright morning, and it will make all the difference, making the building appear more lively, gleaming, and beautiful.


The professional architectural photographer will try to shoot the building, bringing out its own "personality". A bright sunny day, may not work with certain buildings, and vice versa.Certain filters can be used to bring out the personality of the building.


When photographing buildings, all sorts of accessories can be used.A compass is standard among professional architectural photographers. This can be used to calculate where the sun will be, during the day, so you can figure out when to take that perfect shot.A wide range of filters can be used, from polarizing filters, to red filters for black and white.


All sorts of lenses are used for different shots; telephoto lens can be used to compress high-rise buildings, giving it the look of a city. Perspective control lens are common practice.Another main lens used is the shift and tilt. Most keen architectural photographers will use these. They are used to look up or down or sideways, while keeping the film plane vertical, or at least parallel to the object being photographed.

The New Seven Wonder's of the World

The New Seven Wonders of the World, as announced in random order at the Official Declaration Ceremony on 07.07.07, are:

1. The Great Wall of China:



The Great Wall of China literally "The long wall” is a series of stone and earthen fortifications in China, built, rebuilt, and maintained between the 5th century BC and the 16th century to protect the northern borders of the Chinese Empire during the rule of successive dynasties. Several walls, referred to as the Great Wall of China, were built since the 5th century BC, the most famous being the one built between 220 BC and 200 BC by the first Emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang. That wall was much farther north than the current wall, built during the Ming Dynasty, and little of it remains.The Great Wall is the world's longest human-made structure, stretching over approximately 6,400 km (4,000 miles) from Shanhai Pass in the east to Lop Nur in the west, along an arc that roughly delineates the southern edge of Inner Mongolia. It is also the largest human-made structure ever built in terms of surface area and mass.

2. Petra:



Petra is an archaeological site in Jordan, lying in a basin among the mountains which form the eastern flank of Arabah (Wadi Araba), the large valley running from the Dead Sea to the Gulf of Aqaba. It is famous for having many stone structures carved into the rock. The long-hidden site was revealed to the Western world by the Swiss explorer Johann Ludwig Burckhardt in 1812. It was famously described as "a rose-red city half as old as time" in a Newdigate prize-winning sonnet by John William Burgon. Burgon had not actually visited Petra, which remained accessible only to Europeans accompanied by local guides with armed escorts until after World War I. The site was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1985 when it was described as "one of the most precious cultural properties of man's cultural heritage."

3. Chichén Itzá :



Chichen Itza is a large pre-Columbian archaeological site built by the Maya civilization located in the northern center of the Yucatán Peninsula, present-day Mexico. Chichen Itza was a major regional center in the northern Maya lowlands from the Late Classic through the Terminal Classic and into the early portion of the Early Postclassic period. The site exhibits a multitude of architectural styles, from what is called “Mexicanized” and reminiscent of styles seen in central Mexico to the Puuc style found among the Puuc Maya of the northern lowlands. The presence of central Mexican styles was once thought to have been representative of direct migration or even conquest from central Mexico, but most contemporary interpretations view the presence of these non-Maya styles more as the result of cultural diffusion. Archaeological data, such as evidence of burning at a number of important structures and architectural complexes, suggest that Chichen Itza's collapse was violent. Following the decline of Chichen Itza's hegemony, regional power in the Yucatán shifted to a new center at Mayapan. According to the American Anthropological Association, the actual ruins of Chich'en Itza are federal property, and the site’s stewardship is maintained by Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History (Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, INAH). The land under the monuments, however, is privately-owned by the Barbachano family.

4. The Statue of Christ Redeemer:



Christ the Redeemer is a statue of Jesus Christ in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The statue stands 39.6 meters (130 feet) tall, weighs 700 tons and is located at the peak of the 700-m (2296-foot) Corcovado mountain in the Tijuca Forest National Park overlooking the city. A symbol of Christianity, the statue has become an icon of Rio and Brazil.

5. The Colosseum, Rome:



The Colosseum or Coliseum, originally the Flavian Amphitheatre is an elliptical amphitheatre in the centre of the city of Rome, Italy, the largest ever built in the Roman Empire. It is one of the greatest works of Roman architecture and engineering. Occupying a site just east of the Roman Forum, its construction started between 70 and 72 AD under the emperor Vespasian and was completed in 80 AD under Titus, with further modifications being made during Domitian's reign. Originally capable of seating around 50,000 spectators, the Colosseum was used for gladiatorial contests and public spectacles. It remained in use for nearly 500 years with the last recorded games being held there as late as the 6th century — well after the traditional date of the fall of Rome in 476. As well as the traditional gladiatorial games, many other public spectacles were held there, such as mock sea battles, animal hunts, executions, re-enactments of famous battles, and dramas based on Classical mythology. The building eventually ceased to be used for entertainment in the early medieval era. It was later reused for such varied purposes as housing, workshops, quarters for a religious order, a fortress, a quarry and a Christian shrine. Although it is now in a ruined condition due to damage caused by earthquakes and stone-robbers, the Colosseum has long been seen as an iconic symbol of Imperial Rome. It is one of modern Rome's most popular tourist attractions and still has close connections with the Roman Catholic Church, the Pope leading a torch-lit "Way of the Cross" procession to the amphitheatre each Good Friday.

6. Machu Picchu :



Machu Picchu - "Old Peak" is a pre-Columbian Inca city located at 2,430 m (7,970 ft) altitude on a mountain ridge above the Urubamba Valley in Peru, about 70 km (44 miles) northwest of Cusco. Forgotten for centuries by the outside world, although not by locals, it was brought back to international attention by archaeologist Hiram Bingham in 1911, who made the first scientific confirmation of the site and wrote a best-selling work about it. Machu Picchu is probably the most familiar symbol of the Inca Empire. It is often referred to as "The Lost City of the Incas". The site was designated as a World Heritage Site in 1983 when it was described as "an absolute masterpiece of architecture and a unique testimony to the Inca civilization".

7.The Taj Mahal:



The Taj Mahal is a mausoleum located in Agra, India. The Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan commissioned it as a mausoleum for his favorite wife, Mumtaz Mahal. The Taj Mahal (sometimes called "the Taj") is generally considered the finest example of Mughal Architecture, a style that combines elements of Persian, Turkish, Indian, and Islamic architectural styles. While the white domed marble mausoleum is the most familiar part of the monument, the Taj Mahal is actually an integrated complex of structures. In 1983 the Taj became a UNESCO World Heritage Site and was cited as "the jewel of Muslim art in India and one of the universally admired masterpieces of the world's heritage.

Other than these Seven, the Pyramids Of Giza, Egypt will retain its title of wonder, being the only surviving wonder of ancients time.

Pyramids of Giza, Egypt:



The Giza Necropolis stands on the Giza Plateau, on the outskirts of Cairo, Egypt. This complex of ancient monuments is located some eight kilometers (5 miles) inland into the desert from the old town of Giza on the Nile, some 25 kilometers (12.5 miles) southwest of Cairo city centre.