The Ryugyong Hotel, also called the Yu-Kyung Hotel or the 105 Building, is a famous building in Pyongyang, North Korea, but it is not finished.
The unfinished skyscraper is in the shape of a pyramid. It is 1,080 feet tall and has 105 floors, which is why it is called the 105 Building.
It is also the tallest building in North Korea, and Guinness World Records named it the world’s tallest empty building. The building was started in 1987 but stopped for a while in 1992 when the country had an economic crisis.
It started up again in 2008. The building was made to be used for different things, like a hotel.
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Where the Ryugyong Hotel Came From
In the 1980s, North Korea’s economy started to slow down, and the country’s debt began to worry people more and more.
During the same time, South Korea’s economy, which was based on farming, was becoming one of the most successful in the world. Since the Cold War was still ongoing, both countries were trying to prove their right to be in the world.
Concerned that South Korea was making more progress, North Korea looked for ways to make itself more meaningful. Kim II Sung, the leader of North Korea, thought that the best way to beat South Korea was to build a very modern hotel in Pyongyang that symbolized the city.
So, the idea for the Ryugyong Hotel was born. At the time, it was meant to be the biggest hotel in the world.
Architecture
The Ryugyong Hotel is the tallest building in North Korea. It stands 1080 feet tall. The building was supposed to be finished in June 1989. It would have been the tallest hotel in the world until the Rose Tower in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, was completed in 2009. (UAE).
The unfinished hotel is the 63rd tallest building in the world. It also has the 12th most floors of any building in the world.
The Ryugyong Hotel is shaped like a pyramid and has three wings. Each wing is 330 feet long and 59 feet wide, and the three branches come together to form a pinnacle near the top.
On top of the building is an 8-floor truncated cone that is 130 feet wide and is meant to turn, as well as six more floors that don’t move.
Some sources say that the Ryugyong Hotel was meant to have at least 7,650 guest rooms and five restaurants that rotate. Recently, it has been said that the building will be used for more than one thing.
Construction
Baikdoosan Architects & Engineers, a North Korean construction company, started building the Ryugyong Hotel in 1987.
But some things made it hard to finish, like the end of the Cold War and the fall of the Soviet Union. After that, North Korea lost its trading partners, which caused an economic crisis that wiped out almost 40% of its GDP.
By 1992, the Ryugyong Hotel had reached its full architectural height, but construction stopped because the economy was not stable enough to support more buildings.
For 16 years, nobody worked on the site. In April 2008, an Egyptian company called Orascom Group started building again. Most of this work was done outside the building, while the inside was still not finished.
One side of the building’s outside was given an LED screen in 2018, which is used to show animations and movie scenes.