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Something Extra: How High Can We Go?

MIAMI (CBS4) - We all know the biblical story of the Tower of Babel... how humans arrogantly incurred God's wrath by trying to build a tower to the heavens, deluded they could be as powerful as gods.

But we humans keep trying.

Today, news that a property developer in oil-rich Azerbaijan is planning the world's tallest building.

The Khazar Islands tower would reach three thousand six hundred and forty five feet into the sky, twenty seven per cent taller than the current champ, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai.

It will also surpass the under-construction Kingdom Tower in Saudi Arabia, planned to be the first skyscraper to break three thousand feet.

The Azerbaijan tower will more than double New York's Freedom Tower, and dwarf the grand old Empire State Building at about two and half times its size.

Like the Tower of Babel, mega-skyscrapers are a manifestation of human arrogance, but also of great daring.  They can capture our imagination with their beauty and power, but I don't think you could pay me enough to work more than a kilometer up in the sky.

 

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