What is the tallest building in the world?

By 2028, the world should have a new tallest building, with construction well underway on a 1,000m high tower in Saudi Arabia.

Here at BBC Bitesize, we've already taken a look into the world's tallest tree, but with the landscape of our skyscape soon to be disrupted, we thought it was time to take a look at the tallest man-made structures too. Whether it's a skyscraper soaring in the Saudi skies, or a four-storey folk tale in Wichita Falls, there's a whole host of fun facts to uncover.

So, stick with us, and we'll take a look at the tallest building in the world, the highest-rises you can find in the UK, and the fascinating story behind the 'smallest skyscraper in the world'.

The tallest building in the world is the Burj Khalifa, located in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Built in 2009, the Burj Khalifa took the title from Taipei 101, in Taiwan, which had held the position for half a decade following its construction in 2004. Taipei 101 now sits at 11th on the list of the world's tallest buildings, with nine of the ten tallest buildings rising up after 2010, reflecting the recent boom in skyscraper construction.

A feat of human engineering, constructing the Burj Khalifa required more than 12,000 workers, with people coming from all over the world to work on the project. With an exterior crafted using around 26,000 hand-cut glass panels, cleaning the structure from top to bottom takes about three months in total!

You may know the Burj from its appearance in the Mission Impossible franchise, with star Tom Cruise scaling the skyscraper's side as part of a stunt in the series' fourth instalment, Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol.

The Burj Khalifa, currently ranked as the tallest building in the world, stands at a whopping 828 metres (2,716 ft 6 in) tall. To put that in perspective, the Empire State Building is 443 metres tall, making the Burj Khalifa almost twice the size of the famous New York landmark.

Initially, the building was only intended to come in at 518 metres tall - just 10 metres taller than the then-tallest tower, but grew by around 310 metres during the design process - which is roughly the size of Paris' Eiffel Tower.

In total, this makes the Burj Khalifa almost 150m taller than the world's second tallest tower, Merdeka 118. Found in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, construction on the Merdeka 118 was officially completed in 2023. Aptly named, the building has 118 floors, clocking in at a height of 679m (2,227ft), which is roughly the size of seven Big Bens.

Other famous buildings like the Shanghai Tower, One World Trade Centre and the Makkah Royal Clock Tower help make up the list of the 10 tallest buildings in the world, which you can read more about on Newsround.

Completed in 2012, The Shard stands as the tallest building in the UK, clocking it at 309.6 metres.

Also standing as the tallest building in Western Europe, The Shard can be found in Southwark, London, and is home to 72 habitable floors, made up of apartments, restaurants, office spaces and more. A now iconic landmark in the London skyline, The Shard has been featured in a number of films and TV shows, including 2019's Spider-Man: Far From Home and the BBC's very own Doctor Who.

Prior to construction of The Shard, the UK's tallest building was One Canada Square in Canary Wharf, which wore the crown from 1991 to 2012.

In Scotland, the tallest freestanding structure is the Glasgow Tower, at 127 metres, whilst the tallest building in Northern Ireland is the Obel Tower, in Belfast, which clocks in at 85 metres tall. In Wales, the tallest building is Swansea's Meridian Tower, which is 107m tall, though plans are in place for a new development in Cardiff which, if completed, would overtake Meridian Tower, measuring in at 180 metres in height.

Skyscrapers, for the most part, are built to maximise efficiency, allowing a very large building to take up comparatively little land. This can be seen in flats or office buildings, with high-rise variations allowing for a greater number of people to occupy the same space, without taking up half the width of a city to do so.

But building something that high does come with some challenges, specifically how to stop them swaying or blowing over.

To keep skyscrapers upright, most are engineered around a 'skeleton' of steel beams, a lightweight yet strong metal capable of holding up significantly more than a base of bricks and mortar. Generally, skyscrapers are made up of long columns of steel beams which range from the top to the bottom of the structure. These then connect to a grillage at the bottom, which is basically stacks of steel beams lined up horizontally. This sits atop a concrete pad, which in turn sits atop a hard clay beneath the ground. Like the base of a pyramid, this structure extends and widens under the ground, sometimes going as low as the earth's bedrock layer, allowing the building to work against gravity and stay standing.

As far as the wind goes, large skyscrapers do actually sway in the wind, but are usually designed with this in mind, so it's nothing to worry about. The level of sway is usually unnoticeable, though some buildings do have a counterbalance on the higher layers to reduce this movement. Often in the form of a large concrete weight, this works using computer technology to anticipate the effects of wind on the building, and counteract them by swaying the opposite way. Other tactics employed to prevent too heavy a sway are tightening the building's skeleton and having stronger, sturdier cores through the middle of them.

The Newby-McMahon building, found in Wichita Falls, Texas, is commonly referred to as the 'world's littlest skyscraper', standing at only 12 metres tall.

The Newby-McMahon building actually doesn't fulfil any of the criteria to be considered a skyscraper, but acquired the name due to a local legend about its construction.

Built in the Texas oil boom in the early 1900s, the story goes that a Texas con-man, J.D. McMahon, ran a fraudulent scheme to acquire investment in a 'state of the art' high-rise building, to accommodate the influx of wealthy businessmen to the local area. McMahon, however, had no intention of building a skyscraper, instead designing a building that would measure 480 inches, not the 480 feet that investors had assumed.

After construction, McMahon skipped town, leaving Wichita Falls without a soaring skyscraper, but with a small four-storey building that would embed itself in local folklore.

Learn how to protect yourself from scams with this quiz from BBC Bitesize Other Side of The Story.

Whilst the Burj Khalifa may stand tall over others for now, its reign as the world's tallest building may be coming to an end soon.

The Jeddah Tower, currently under construction in Saudi Arabia, will surpass the Burj as the world's tallest building, with a planned height of 1,000 metres.

When completed, this will make Jeddah Tower the first building in the world to reach 1km in height, putting it almost 200 metres taller than any building in the world.

Construction on the Jeddah Tower is expected to be completed by August 2028.

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