Big Ben is nothing compared to this …

This object is probably the most monumental “Goody I Found” (TGIF) yet!

When I first saw a picture of this “building” at the end of last year, I was completely flabbergasted: an architecture design like from the 1920s and an oversized bell tower in the centre, with other skyscrapers grouped around it – please have a look at the picture below:

What is that? As a ‘westernised’ European, I had no idea …
Well, the Abraj Al-Bait Towers are located in Mecca near the Kabaa and house seven hotels for the almost two million annual pilgrims – certainly a well-known building for Muslims.

However, this picture does not convey the true scale of the Abraj Al-Bait Towers: it is one of the tallest, largest and probably most expensive buildings in the world: Completed in 2012 after 10 years of construction at a cost of $15 billion (sic!).
The bell tower is crowned by the largest clock in the world, which is said to be visible from a distance of 8 kilometres. The minute hands are 23 metres long. That’s the size of a small wind turbine rotor!

So what does this have to do with our visualisation theme?

The almost astronomical size of the Abraj Al-Bait Towers only really became apparent to me in the second picture. Unfortunately, I can’t find a source for the graphic below, but the message is clear: what a huge, monumental complex. The clock tower is almost 7 times taller than Big Ben!🤯

The message? Visualisation helps to compare!🧭
Always give your users something to compare with in your dashboards.

Have a nice weekend,

Lars

This file is licenced under the Creative Com