Mecca has skyscrapers

I did not realize that Mecca has skyscrapers until I read this post: "Looming large over the Grand Mosque and the Kaaba (the black cube-shaped building that is the holiest site in Islam) is the largest and second tallest building in the world, called the Royal Mecca Clock Tower complex."

 Now Mecca has the second tallest building in the world.

Thanks Haydar for sharing.

 Remember when I posted Starbucks in the Arab World? That was Christmas 2009, and I reported there were 26 Starbucks in Mecca. I wanted to verify that number again and found that Starbucks has changed its website since then, and the pages that showed the number of Starbucks in each location no longer exist. I had to use Google to find the number is still 26, and I learned that these 26 Starbucks are in Mecca province, which includes Jeddah, and there are many more Starbucks in Jeddah than Mecca. In 2009 I thought all of them were in the city of Mecca. I should have realized how improbable that would be.

While searching for these facts I read an interesting post about Saudi's rejection of Starbucks' new logo, which has been deemed too sexy for Islam. But a giant hotel with shopping malls and with a giant clock on top of it is kosher!

 PS: "The developer and contractor of the complex is the Saudi Binladin Group, the Kingdom's largest construction company"