Sometimes, there are questions that keep me up at night.
With online shopping, does this mean that there are flying dildos in the sky even when I sleep?
Why do people call some guys lady magnets when magnets both attract and repel?
Are humans the equivalent of the naked mole rats of the ape family?
Or you could have some more curious thoughts, like “what is the largest hotel in the world”?
In that case, I don’t know why you’re thinking instead of Googling. So here’s the answer currently:
It’s First World Hotel in Genting Highlands, Malaysia, with a total of 7,351 rooms.
That record is about to be broken, though.
But of course, you already knew that from the headline.
Abraj Kudai In Mecca, Saudi Arabia
Granted, this is still under construction, but when it is actually completed, it will be the largest hotel in the world with 12 towers each 45 stories high, for a total of 10,000 bedrooms, 70 restaurants, and four rooftop helipads.
Five floors will be specially reserved for the Saudi royal family.
Will Be Completed In 2021?
A “?” is put there, cause it’s still really an estimation now. Forbes estimates its opening to be in 2021.
The hotel, which costs US$3.5 billion (~S$4.7 billion), was actually supposed to open in 2019. But financial issues meant that construction was put on hiatus.
By financial issues, I mean oil prices dropping.
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Finance, who is the owner of the Abraj Kudai project, also happens to be a customer of The Saudi Binladin Group (SBL), which is the company leading the construction.
It’s such that government actions directly affect SBL, and when oil prices dropped, the government cancelled projects and delayed payments. This also included Abraj Kudai.
Later in 2017, construction resumed.
But of course, you don’t really care about what I typed above. What then, is really interesting about this building? Did Goody Feed become a real estate newsletter?
Well, the hotel can look nice and dandy and high-SES, so it might be a place that this writer may never visit.
And That Probably Includes The Millions Of Pilgrims Who Go There Every Year
You see, although Mecca does have a lot of atas buildings, it’s also a place with a large amount of poverty.
The contrast of rich/poor is even clearer during Haji, when masses of pilgrims lie on blankets on the floor outside the main mosque.
Most of these poorer pilgrims, who come from all over the world, sleep right beside the high-rise shopping malls and hotels beside the Grand Mosque which they can’t afford.
And because I’m hard at work in trying to turn Goody Feed into Baddy Feed, here’s more for your depression:
According to Dr Ahmad al-Alawi, the executive director of the Islamic Heritage Research Foundation in Mecca, all the luxury hotel developments (old and new) were built on the Ajyad Fortress, which was a historic building built in the Ottoman era.
In 1984, the house of the prophet’s wife, Khadijah, was destroyed to make way for public lavatories.
Here’s what he says about the Abraj Kudai:
“Why would anyone construct a hotel with sunbathing beds on the canopies as if you were next to the beach?”
“Even the gyms have full blown glass windows in front of you… So if you’re on a treadmill you can have a view overlooking the Kaaba. My concern is that it [the Abruj Kudai] will not only become a holiday resort, but an excuse to wipe away Mecca and Medina’s heritage.”
For even more controversy, one of SBL’s cranes once fell into the Grand Mosque during construction, which killed 107 people.
On the flip side, the Saudi government wants to offer a “once in a lifetime experience”. Tarik Dogru, a professor of hospitality and tourism at Boston University, says:
“The Saudi government saw a potential in which there is demand and a market niche that needs to be filled. The hotel will offer an ‘experience’ which many people are willing to pay for because the pilgrimage is a once in a lifetime experience for most people, and they save for it for their whole lives.”
Whatever you think of the Abraj Kudai, I can say that there will probably be some confused rich people who stumble upon this article after Googling “Abraj Kudai” with the following reaction:
Watch this for a complete summary of what REALLY happened to Qoo10, and why it's like a K-drama:
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