History of the world's tallest buildings

The tallest building in the world, as of 2024, is the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. The title of "world's tallest building" has been held by various buildings in modern times, including the Lincoln Cathedral in Lincoln, England, and the Empire State Building and the original World Trade Center, both in New York City.

Before the modern skyscraper era emerged, between c. 1311 and 1884 the tallest buildings and structures were mostly Christian churches and cathedrals. Prior to then, the tallest buildings in the world cannot be conclusively determined. For instance, the Lighthouse of Alexandria, which was completed in approximately 280 BC, has been estimated to have been 100 m (330 ft) tall,^[1] but its true height is not known. For thousands of years, the Great Pyramid in Egypt was the tallest structure in the world until Lincoln Cathedral of 1311, but the Great Pyramid is not considered a building since it is not habitable. Similarly, the Eiffel Tower was the world's tallest structure from 1889, when it was built, but not the tallest building.

The skyscraper was invented in Chicago in 1884 when Home Insurance Building was constructed using a steel frame with curtain walls instead of load-bearing walls. For the next century, the world's tallest building was always in the United States, with New York City housing the tallest building for 86 years and Chicago housing it for 30 years. After just over a century (1885–1998), the distinction of the world's tallest building moved to Malaysia, which was the first country to break the United States' record of constructing the tallest buildings in the world when Petronas Towers was completed in 1998. Taiwan's Taipei 101 was the next to hold the record; the building's status as the world's tallest building lasted from 2004 to 2009, when it was transferred to the Burj Khalifa, the current record-holder of 828 meters tall, upon its completion in the United Arab Emirates.