Reaching the clouds with your hands, feeling like a bird soaring high above a busy metropolis - all this can be done by visiting the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur. These two grandiose structures are unusually beautiful: the graceful domes of giants rest against the bright blue Malaysian sky, everything around immediately becomes small and insignificant. All this is caused by an unprecedented admiration that arises when looking at the city from the observation deck of the most beautiful twin towers.
Kuala Lumpur is a city that is famous not only in Malaysia itself, but throughout the world. The name of this place, for those who have not been here, immediately evokes vivid associations in which vines hang from small houses, and do not allow to move calmly, and friendly koalas, curiously look at people from the trees. However, Kuala Lumpur is far from these fantasies. In reality, this is the city known for its beautiful and modern skyscrapers. The most famous and tallest among them are the Petronas Towers.
Malaysia hides a lot of interesting things - read more in our article.
History
Once upon a time, there were directors of a large state oil and gas company, Petronas. Everything was good with them: they had considerable income, and there was a desire to develop, but they did not have an office that would correspond to the requirements and status of the company. Around the same time, many large cities took part in the so-called "race for skyscrapers": who will have a higher skyscraper, who will be more beautiful and more practical. The leader in this competition at that time (late 90s) was the Willis Tower skyscraper in Chicago.
Without thinking twice, the Petronas company followed the move that won the US championship: it built the Twin Towers! Yes, such that they both in height and in appearance surpassed all their predecessors. Without thinking twice, the name of the skyscrapers was given in honor of the company - the creator: both sounds beautiful and good PR.
Architecture
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Islam is the predominant religion in Malaysia. The architects came up with an interesting move so as not to deviate far from their traditions, even during the construction of such a significant structure, which was destined to become a decoration of the whole city. An eight-pointed star (a symbol of Islam) was taken as the basis for the building plan, and the domes, which are crowned with skyscrapers, resemble mosques in their outlines. This made the city authorities happy and only benefited the giant twins. These are the most urban Muslim-style skyscrapers to date.
Building
The Malaysian Twin Towers are skyscrapers with the deepest concrete foundations in the entire world! 100 meters, this is the depth that took a little over three years to create. Throughout this time, every day for every 90 seconds, special trucks alternately poured the foundations of the towers, which consisted of particularly high-strength and resilient concrete. This helped prevent soil subsidence and made skyscrapers completely protected from hurricanes that sometimes do not bypass Malaysia.
Another interesting thing is the construction of a glass bridge, which connects the towers to each other at a height of 41-42 floors. This bridge is not only practical, but also symbolic. On the one hand, thanks to him, people can freely move between skyscrapers. On the other hand, it is a symbol of unification and proximity to heaven, it is not for nothing that the bridge has its own name - Skybridge. It was designed in South Korea, after which it, in 500 separate parts, was delivered to Kuala Lumpur. Here it was reassembled in its original form and taken upstairs, where it was installed at a great height for 3 days.
Interesting Facts
The Twin Towers appeared on Russian cinema screens in the film "Code of the Apocalypse". According to the script, the heroine of Anastasia Zavorotnyuk jumped with one of the towers with a parachute. The stunt was performed by the actress's understudy. The failure was that during the jump, the power line was hit and torn down, which left the whole block without electricity for some time.
Even earlier, skyscrapers appeared in the film "Trap", the main characters of which famously flew from one building to another on a kind of "ropes".
In 1997, the famous French rock climber "Spiderman" tried to conquer one of the towers, climbing it. However, he only managed to get to the 60th floor, where he was arrested by the police. An unpleasant incident did not stop the daredevil, and after 10 years he tried to repeat his ascent, choosing the second tower. However, ironically, the police caught up with him, and again on the same floor.
The gaming industry also could not ignore the famous skyscrapers: the Petronas Towers appear in three levels of the popular computer game Hitman 2: The Silent Assassin.
Petronas Towers in numbers
451, 9 m - this is the height of each of the Petronas buildings.
88 floors - this is the height of the first and second towers.
The 6th place in the world is occupied by the twin towers among the tallest buildings in the world.
16,000 windows are located in these towers.
10,000 people are constantly washing and cleaning the windows of the towers.
30 days is how long it takes to completely clean all the windows of the Twin Towers.
$ 800 million was spent on the construction of the Petronas Towers.
Two-storey elevators serve these buildings. One floor of the elevator stops on the even floor, while the second one stops on the odd floor, respectively.
3,000 m2 - that much concrete was needed to create a high-strength foundation for skyscrapers
213,750 m2, or 48 hectares - this is the total area of the entire territory of the Twin Towers. To make it clearer: this figure is equal in number to 48 football fields.
650,000 people weekly visit various shops that are located in the shopping center of one of the skyscrapers.
Nearly 5,500 vehicles can be accommodated in the underground car park under the towers.
Despite the fact that the Petronas Towers lost the lead in the struggle for the tallest skyscrapers in the world, their beauty and grandeur continue to conquer both designers and ordinary tourists from all over the world. An amazing combination of Muslim traditions and the most reliable construction technologies made the twin skyscrapers a miracle of modern architecture.
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