Taipei 101

The tallest building in the world today is Taipei 101, located in Taipei, Taiwan (in the Hsinyi dist. if anyone cared to know). It is also known as the Taipei Financial Center.

It became the tallest building at it's completion in 2004 when it surpassed the Petronas Towers in Malaysia. The building was begun in 1999, topped in 2003 and completed in 2004. The design reflects the traditional Chinese pagoda with the eight tiers of eight stories (eight is a number symboizing fortune (the opposite of our unlucky thirteen)). The topping spire is a massive 60 ft design of Taiwan's native bamboo plant.

A 18ft, 882 ton, ball-shaped damper located near the top counteracts swaying during earthquakes and typhoons, and it located on level 88 and is visible from the restaurant and observation decks. This system is designed to send the swaying motion of the quake or typhoon up through the structure to the swinging sphere, providing a stabilizing force.

There are 101 floors above ground level with 5 underground. The building holds the record for height: ground to structural top - 1,671 ft, ground to roof - 1,474 ft, ground to highest occupied floor - 1, 441 ft. It also houses the fast ascending elevator which speeds upward at 37.3 miles per hour.

Genesis 11:4 "And they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth." But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built."

" But what did these vain and presumptous men intend? How did they expect to raise this lofty mass against God, when they had build it above all the mountains and the clouds of the earth's atmosphere? What injury could any spiritual or material elevation do to God? The safe and true way to heaven is made by humility, which lifts up the heart to the Lord, not against Him."
Augustine, The City of God, Book XVI, chap 6 on the tower of Babel

"You see how the god blasts living things that are prominent and prevents their display of superiority ... you can see that it is always the largest building and the tallest trees on which he hurls his thunderbolts. It is the god's way to curtail anything excessive... This happens because the god does not allow anyone but himself to feel pride."
Herodotus, Book seven. This is how the Persian's pagan perspective looked on the gods who ruled the fortune of man.