The world's largest hotel is being planned for Mecca, Saudi Arabia, a remarkable structure that will rise out of the desert and apparently contain 10,000 rooms for worshippers. The hotel will be part of a mixed-use development at Abraj Kudai, a US$ 3.5 billion project intended to look like a desert fortress that encompasses a ring of towers standing on top of a podium. It is due to be completed in 2017 and is being situated in the Manafia area of Mecca's central zone, just 2.2 kilometers south of the Masjid al-Haram (holy mosque). DesignMENA reported that the hotel will have 10,000 rooms in 12 separate towers, which are 44 stores high that will also include 70 restaurants, rooftop helipads, royal floors and a full size convention center. Two of the towers will offer five-star facilities, according to the hotel's architects Dar Al-Handasah. The other ten will provide four-star accommodation. The interiors are expected to be in keeping with the opulent style found elsewhere in the region. The site, which will also include residential facilities, a shopping mall and plenty of car parking for those visiting the mosque and black Kaaba, has an approximate total site area of 60,000 square meters and a total built-up area of 1.4 million square meters. The world's largest hotels up until now have been in Las Vegas. The Venetian and The Palazzo, which operate as a single hotel, offer 7117 rooms. The MGM Grand in Las Vegas is close behind in terms of number of room keys, with 6,852 rooms available.

Kingdom Tower, the world's tallest tower, located in northern Jeddah, has reached an important milestone in the project that will set another new world record - the world's tallest construction crane. The singularly soaring skyscraper that will ultimately earn the accolade of world's tallest building, with a height of more than 1 kilometer, demands equally unique construction equipment, methods and materials, including the custom-built cranes supplied by Germany's Liebherr & WolffKran. The enormous yellow lifting devices, known as climbing cranes are designed to accompany the tower's growth both externally and internally, in the latter case utilizing any of the building's 65 interior elevator shafts to make the climb. The largest of the six cranes Liebherr type 357 HC-L can lift up to 18 tons at a speed of 44 meters/minute, with heights to parallel that of the tower. The cranes are attached to the body of the building but sits atop a phenomenally narrow tower support of only 2.4 meters X 2.45 meters. But it is not just the size that makes these new cranes unique. They feature the latest in heavy-lifting technology that will allow them to withstand harsh weather conditions, in particular, the strong winds that can sweep across the spectacular heights at which the cranes will ultimately be deployed. To operate this type of cranes, special highly experienced and certified operators will be hired. With the tower's foundation now in place, vertical, above-ground construction commenced in September. Plans call for the first ten floors to be completed by the end of the year. The Kingdom Tower features 170 stories, seven stories of which will be allocated for the five-star Four Seasons Hotel offering 200 rooms and 121 luxury serviced apartments, and seven stories for offices. The tower will also have 61 stories that include 318 housing units of various types' amenities, gyms, spas, cafes and restaurants, two sky lobbies and world's highest observation decks, located on the 644 meter-height, enabling visitors to view Jeddah and the Red Sea from high in the sky.

Saudi Arabia laid the foundation stone for the King Abdullah International Gardens (KAIG) in Riyadh, with plans for the facility set to include the world's largest botanical gardens. KAIG, one of the largest environment projects in the world, will be spread over a total area of 2.5 million square meters along Riyadh-Jeddah Road. Construction work of KAIG has started after the completion of the first phase of the project, which included leveling the site and fencing works. There will be six main sections at KAIG, including covered and open facilities. They are the Plants Gardens, the Valley Gardens, the Scientific Gardens, the Water Gardens, the International Gardens, and the Nature Gardens. The covered facility, which will be the largest of its kind in the world, would have two giant botanical gardens spread over a total area of 100 thousand square meters. The crescent-shaped facility will be five times bigger than the world's largest geodesic domes at the Eden Project, Cornwall, in Britain (). Its structure and fabric are capable of adaptation to the various environments. The project will focus on local plant life in the Arabian Peninsula and is designed to appeal to families and tourists. KAIG's open facility will have plants growing in the local environment, in addition to an open museum for plants, seeds bank, and rocky garden. There will also be research institutes, office accommodation, shops, restaurants, visitor facilities and a theater. The gardens will use recycled water and alternative energy supplies, exploiting solar and wind power as well as rainfall through collection tanks.

Mounib Hammoud, Jeddah Economic Company's (JEC) new CEO, has announced the completion of the piling work for the Kingdom Tower, set to be the future-tallest building in the world, upon completion in 2019. This achievement is considered to be the base of works over ground, according to a press release to Arab News from Kingdom Holding Company (KHC), chaired by Prince Alwaleed bin Talal. Last year Saudi BAUER Foundation Contractors Ltd. announced that it had signed a deal for the enabling works for Kingdom, the one-kilometer-tall tower planned for Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal has given the go ahead for the construction of the world's tallest tower in the Red Sea port city of Jeddah by signing a US$ 1.2 billion contract with Bin Laden Group on August 2, 2011. On July of this year the company "Broad Sustainable Building" hoping to build the world's tallest skyscraper in record time held a groundbreaking ceremony in Changsha, China. The company planned to build the 838-meter Sky City using its prefabricated modular construction method. But after several days the company announced, that the construction works stopped because of documents problems.

Saudi Arabia will build a new city for 600 thousand people near Makkah. Named Makkah Gate, the residential and administrative city will be developed under a publi-private partnership on the Makkah-Jeddah Highway with 45 districts. Spanning an area of 83 million square meters, the project will include educational institutions, government offices, shopping centers, housing units and a national park. Saudi Arabia is creating several new cities across the kingdom, particularly near the religious cities of Makkah and Medinah, as its population rapidly grows. In June, it was announced a "Pilgrim City" would be built for 200 thousand Muslims who travel to Madinah for Haj and Umrah. The state-of-the-art city would cover 1.6 million square meters and include hotels, furnished apartments, a railway and bus station, government offices and a 400-bed hospital. Construction of a new "mega city" in Rabigh, 150 kilometers north of Jeddah, was due to begin after Ramadan. The Indian developer in charge of the project, Gammon Group, said was worth US$ 2.9 billion and would include an advanced hospital, a petrochemical plant, other industrial areas, schools, mosques and residential villas and cover 20 million square meters of land formerly owned by a former Rabigh governor.