Saudi Arabia it seems will stop at nothing! With the fast paced construction around the Holy city of Makkah, now the Saudi government has planned to construct the world’s largest hotel ‘The Abraj Kudai’ in the Holy city of Makkah by 2017. The hotel building will comprise of twelve 44 storey tall towers having 10,000 rooms. The project will be designed by the design group Dar al-Handasah and will span an area of 4.6 million square feet.
Sources quote that the work has been initiated. The project has been estimated to cost £2.25billion. The project is a residential plus commercial complex with a large podium topped by 12 towers with various features. Each tower will have:
- Podium housing a bus station.
- Shopping mall.
- Convention centre.
- Parking area.
The interior will be done by a London based Areen Hospitality design practice. It will also have 70 restaurants. It will have helipads for royalty and have one of the largest domes in the world. The Abraj Kudai, if completed, will be the largest project in terms of the number of rooms it offers. According to a survey conducted by the hotel research firm STR, the top five hotels in the world in terms of room count are as follows;
1.MGM Grand Hotel, Las Vegas: 6,198 rooms
2. First World Hotel, Malaysia: 6,118 rooms
3. Luxor Hotel, Las Vegas: 4,400 rooms
4. Mandalay Bay Resort, Las Vegas: 4,332 rooms
5. The Venetian, Las Vegas: 4,049 rooms