While the rest of the group packed (read: napped) before we left Riyadh for Dammam, four of us walked a few blocks away to visit the Skybridge in Kingdom Centre.
Kingdom Centre contains a hotel (Four Seasons), apartment building, and shopping mall. It's also the tallest building in KSA, though soon to be surpassed. Wikipedia also informs me that it is the 3rd largest building with a hole in it… which is a ridiculous category of buildings to rank, Wikipedia.
It's been something of a competition to come up with the funniest/truest description of the Kingdom Centre's unique shape, by the way. So far the best we've come up with is an X-box, a USB drive, and (my favorite) a giant bottle opener. It's an incredibly beautiful building: it reflects the colors around it, so it blends almost perfectly with the sky. When we left, it reflected the evening clouds.
We paid 25 riyals each (between 6-8 USD) to visit the Skybridge, noting as we walked waste bins, benches, and ceilings (and probably more things we didn't see) that were all designed to resemble the building's exterior. The first elevator ride lasted about 50 seconds in a psychedelic, star-themed elevator.
We then transferred to a completely normal elevator, which was something of a let-down, as I was hoping for a sea-theme. This ride lasted around 40 seconds, at which point we exited onto the Skybridge. I'm not sure how many floors there are--I think around 80; the building is 992 feet tall.
We then transferred to a completely normal elevator, which was something of a let-down, as I was hoping for a sea-theme. This ride lasted around 40 seconds, at which point we exited onto the Skybridge. I'm not sure how many floors there are--I think around 80; the building is 992 feet tall.
(View of lobby.)
The Skybridge itself is smaller and more intimate than I imagined. It's perhaps 15 feet wide and a little under 200 feet long. It's curved; something I didn't notice from the ground. At the apex of the arc, a professional photographer is ready to take your picture--or in our case, yell at us for ignoring the "No Cameras" sign. This led to some completely unnecessary shenanigans on the boys' part--they seemed to be in a competition to see who could take more clandestine photos. (Will add some of these illicit portraits soon!)
I think you could see all of Riyadh from here... but Saudi Arabia is mostly desert, and deserts get dusty. Visibility wasn't great. But take my word for it, Riyadh is huge.
Did I mention how beautiful it is?!
- Taylor
Love that Wikipedia has a ranking for "building with a hole in it", that is hilarious!
ReplyDeleteThis all looks amazing! Glad you are all enjoying your trip so far :)