Currently, the tallest structure ever built is the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, which stands at 829.8 meters tall. This skyscraper is just the most recent in a long series of structures that have held the title of the world’s tallest since ancient times.
However, not all of these fit the modern definition of building. According to the definition used by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH), which certifies which buildings are the tallest, a building is a structure in which at least 49% of its height is made of habitable floor area. A structure that doesn’t fit this criterion is a tower. Also, there’s some controversy on which part of a building to count, and three different criteria are now used: height of any part of the building, height of the highest floor (which only counts the habitable area), and height of the architectural top (which includes spires but not antennae, masts, or flag poles). With that said, in this article we will talk about both towers and buildings, exploring various criteria.
The earliest known “tall” structure is a temple in the archaeological site of Göbekli Tepe, in Turkey, which has a height of around 6 meters. This structure dates from around 10,000 BCE and might have held the title of the world’s tallest for 2000 years, until around 8000 BCE. For the following 4000 years, the title was held by the 8.5-meter tall Tower of Jericho. This structure, located in Jericho, Palestine, has been described as the world’s oldest tower as well as one of the oldest monuments.
A Sumerian temple known as the Anu Ziggurat, in Uruk, Iraq, took the title around 4000 BCE, standing at 13 meters tall. Afterwards, the title of world’s tallest structure was taken by Egyptian pyramids, and the record remained in Egypt until the Late Middle Ages. With a height of 62 meters, the first Egyptian pyramid, the Pyramid of Djoser, was the tallest structure in the world for around 40 years, between 2650 BCE and 2610 BCE. Then, the 92-meter tall Meidum Pyramid held the title for around 5 years, followed in the next 5 years by the 104.7-meter tall Bent Pyramid of Dahshur. Around 2600 BCE the Red Pyramid of Dahshur, became the new tallest structure in the world with a height of 105 meters.
This pyramid held the title for 30 years, until the construction of the Great Pyramid of Giza. Erected around 2570 BCE and with a height of 146.6 meters (now 138.5 meters due to erosion), the Great Pyramid of Giza remained the tallest structure in the world for almost 3800 years.
The Great Pyramid of Giza was the tallest structure in the world for around 3800 years (Nina Aldin Thune, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0).
The first building to surpass this pyramid’s height might have been the Old St Paul’s Cathedral in London, which according to some sources had a spire that reached 149 meters, and was erected in 1221. However, this claim is disputed, as other sources report a height of 140 meters. Nevertheless, after four millennia of pyramids, this started a centuries-long age in which the world’s tallest building was a church.
The Lincoln Cathedral in Lincoln, England, took the title thanks to its 160-meter tall spire in 1311. This height is usually accepted by scholars, but some have disputed this claim, arguing that the spire wasn’t that tall. However, the spire collapsed in 1549, and for the first time in history the height of the tallest structure in the world decreased. For 20 years, St. Mary’s Church, in Stralsund, Germany, held the title with a height of 151 meters, but in 1569, the 153-meter tall Beauvais Cathedral in France completed construction. However, this church was the world’s tallest building only for four years, because the spire collapsed in 1573. So, the title went back to St. Mary’s Church in Stralsund. This church ended up suffering from the same fate, as its spire was destroyed by a lightning in 1647.
By this point, the Great Pyramid of Giza had already eroded to around 139 meters, so the Strasbourg Cathedral in France became the tallest building in the world, with a height of 142 meters. This church held the title for 227 years, until the construction of the 147-meter tall St. Nicholas Church in Hamburg, Germany, in 1874. Just two years later, the Rouen Cathedral brought the title back to France with a height of 151 meters. However, the record for the world’s tallest structure returned to Germany in 1880, with the construction of the Cologne Cathedral, which stands at 157.4 meters.
The first structure to surpass the 160 meters of the collapsed spire of the Lincoln Cathedral was the Washington Monument in Washington, D.C., United States. Built in 1884 and with a height of 169 meters, this became the tallest structure ever built until that point. This record was obliterated by the construction of the Eiffel Tower in 1889, which reached an unprecedented height of 312 meters (now it is 330 meters tall after various additions).
The Eiffel Tower was the tallest structure ever built from 1889 until 1930 (APK, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0).
However, with the construction of these tall non-habitable structures and the first skyscrapers in the late 19th century, we need to divide the tallest structures into the different categories of “buildings” and “towers”. While the Eiffel Tower remained the tallest overall structure for decades, the title of tallest building changed several times. In 1889, the Mole Antonelliana in Turin, Italy, completed construction, reaching a height of 167.4 meters. The Ulm Minster in Germany became the tallest church in the world in 1890, with a height of 161.5 meters, and holds this title to this day. The first skyscraper to rival the tallest structures was the Philadelphia City Hall, in the United States, which was built in 1894. With an official height of 156 meters and an antenna that reaches 167 meters, this became the tallest building not originally erected for religious purposes.
Afterwards, the record was beaten numerous times by skyscrapers in New York. First was the 187-meter Singer Building in 1908, followed by the 213-meter Met Life Building in 1909, and then the 241-meter Woolworth Building in 1913. The 283-meter 40 Wall Street briefly held the title between 1929 and 1930, until the construction of the Chrysler Building. This skyscraper, with a height of 319 meters, was the first building to surpass even the Eiffel Tower, and became the world’s tallest structure. However, it held the title for just a few months, until the construction of the Empire State Building in 1931, which stands at 381 meters tall. When counting the antenna on top, this building reaches a height of 443 meters.
The Empire State Building was the world’s tallest skyscraper between 1931 and 1972.
In the second half of the 20th century, various extremely tall radio towers in the United States surpassed the height of the Empire State Building. The first one was the 480.5-meter Griffin Television Tower Oklahoma built in 1954. Two years later, this record was beaten by the 490.7-meter KOBR-TV Tower in New Mexico, and in 1959 the record was taken by the 493.5-meter WGME-TV Tower in Maine. Just one year later, the 511-meter KFVS TV Mast in Missouri was completed, but it was surpassed two years later by the 533-meter WTVM/WRBL/WVRK Tower in Georgia. In 1963 the title was taken by the WIMZ-FM Tower in Tennessee, which stands at 534 meters. However, the record was soon beaten by the KVLY-TV mast in North Dakota, which originally had a height of 629 meters. The title of the world’s tallest structure moved out of the United States in 1974, with the construction of the Warsaw Radio Mast in Poland in 1974. Standing at 646.4 meters, this is the third tallest structure ever built, but it collapsed in 1991.
While all these radio towers were indeed the tallest structures in the world, they don’t fit the definition of building or even tower. This is because a structure is considered a tower if it is “freestanding”, which means that it is not supported by wires or any another kind of support. With this definition, freestanding structures are skyscrapers and towers, but not radio masts. However, there are also radio towers that are indeed freestanding.
In 1967, the Ostankino Tower, a television and radio tower in Moscow, became the world’s tallest freestanding structure with a height of 540 meters, surpassing the Empire State Building. This record was beaten by the CN Tower in Toronto, Canada, which was built in 1975 and stands at 553.3 meters. Meanwhile, the North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York became the world’s tallest skyscraper in 1972, reaching an architectural height of 417 meters and a pinnacle of 526.8 meters. Just two years later, the Sears Tower (now Willis Tower) in Chicago took the title with an architectural height of 442 meters and a pinnacle of 527.3 meters.
The construction of the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in 1998 caused some controversy over the definition of tallest building, since they had a total height of 451.9 meters. This means that they surpassed the architectural height of the Sears Tower, but not the height of its antenna. Nevertheless, the Petronas Towers were officially designated as the world’s tallest building. A similar controversy involved the Taipei 101 in Taipei, Taiwan, in 2004. This skyscraper has a height of 508 meters, meaning that it was once again both taller and shorter than the Sears Tower, according to which definition was used.
The controversy was solved by the construction of the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, which was inaugurated in 2010, and became the tallest structure ever built by any definition. This skyscraper has an architectural height of 828 meters, and a total height of 829.8 meters, making it by far the tallest building in the world.
The Burj Khalifa is currently the tallest structure ever built (Francisco Anzola, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0).
Currently, there’s only one project which might surpass the height of the Burj Khalifa, the Jeddah Tower in Saudi Arabia. This building is planned to have a height of 1008 meters, which would make it the tallest structure ever built and the first to be over one kilometer tall. The Jeddah Tower began construction in 2013, but the project was halted in 2018. Construction resumed in 2023, and it is now estimated to be completed around 2028 or 2029.