A team from the Guinness Book of World Records is already in the city for the purpose.

Rising 170 meters high in the air, the world’s tallest flagpole in Jeddah will enter the Guinness Book of World Records on Tuesday, just in time for Saudi Arabia’s National Day.

A team from the Guinness Book of World Records is already in the city for the purpose. The Jeddah flag will eclipse the 165-meter flag in Tajikistan.

“On behalf of Guinness Book of World Records, I am happy to verify that the Jeddah pole meets our guidelines. The flag must completely unfurl and flutter to get the new record status,” said Pravin Patel, official adjudicator at the Guinness.

“Not only it is the tallest flagpole in the world, but the overall execution of the project has met internationally recognized technical, design, specialized engineering and safety standards,” he said.

The project took 12 months to be completed.

The flagpole displays the banner of monotheism. The square, where the flagpole is located, is also now home to a number of additional elements, including a physical structure of Saudi Arabia’s national emblem (two swords — each 75 meters long — and an 85 meter high palm tree) at the center of the 26,000 sq. meter area. The flag itself is 49.5 meters long and 33 meters wide, with a total area of 1,635 sq. meters and weighs 570 kg and is almost half the size of a football pitch.

“This is one of the most important projects that has been carried out by Abdul Latif Jameel Community Initiatives to date. This project reaffirms our commitment and loyalty toward our group’s home country. It also gives us an opportunity to be part of another milestone and the creation of a landmark that will be foremost in everyone’s mind,” said Dr. Ibrahim Badawood, managing director of Abdul Latif Jameel Community Initiatives.

“We are especially thankful to Jeddah Municipality for its efforts and support and for assisting us in meeting all the challenges we faced during the whole project.”

The idea of building a flagpole originated two years ago when the president of the Abdul Latif Jameel Community Initiatives, Mohammed Abdul Latif Jameel wanted to celebrate the safe and healthy return of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques (King Abdullah) from a medical trip abroad.

Additionally, one of the main supporters of the project was Babteen Le Blanc Company, the main contractor. Babteen Le Blanc selected its best talent to represent the company and work toward a successful execution as well as a team of experts and consultants that worked closely with renowned local and international factories to design and import modern technologies and steel needed to fabricate the flagpole’s main vertical structure. The structure was built at the Sokomineen factories in Tunisia and steel was imported from Germany, Italy, Korea and the Netherlands.

“We are very proud to be part of such a successful project and to have helped Saudi Arabia shine with pride” said Shereef Al Bahar, the supervising engineer of the project from Abdul Latif Jameel.

The location of the flagpole, in close proximity to the tunnel of Al-Andalus road, created a major challenge. Therefore, the foundation of the flagpole had to be set at a safe distance in order for the earthquake resistant landmark not to affect the tunnel. Based on engineering and consultancy studies, a safe distance of 18 meters between the base of the flagpole and the edge of the tunnel was determined, he said.

 
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