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60 free Burj Khalifa trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Burj Khalifa trivia quiz covers the world's tallest building from the 33 test boreholes drilled into weak Dubai sandstone in 2003 to the lounge that opened 585 metres up in 2019. It asks about the height, the floors, the Y-shaped plan borrowed from a desert flower and the Great Mosque of Samarra, the 27 setbacks that confuse the wind, the buttressed core, the Chicago architects and Korean builders, and the recycled steel from East Berlin's demolished parliament. It also covers the numbers people love: how far the tower sways, how many glass panels, windows and elevators it has, how much water it drinks, how many stairs run to the 160th floor, how much cooler it is at the top and how long it takes 36 workers to wash it. Then the records and the drama: overtaking Taipei 101, the CN Tower and the Warsaw radio mast one by one, the surprise renaming at the 2010 opening after Abu Dhabi's bailout, the empty apartments that followed, the record BASE jumps, Alain Robert's six-hour climb, and Tom Cruise dangling off it in Ghost Protocol. Every answer is checked against Wikipedia's articles on the Burj Khalifa, its architect and the people who have jumped off or climbed up it, and each explanation adds one further fact. Good for geography and engineering fans, travellers heading to Dubai and quiz setters who want more than 'how tall is it'. For the wider city, see our Dubai trivia page.
30 of 60 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What is the Burj Khalifa's total height to the tip of its antenna?
829.8 m
That is just over half a mile; the roof height including the spire is 828 m.
Q 02How many floors does the Burj Khalifa have?
163
The previous record for most floors was the World Trade Center's 110.
Q 03Which building had held the world's-tallest title since 2004 when the Burj Khalifa surpassed it?
Taipei 101
The tower passed Taipei 101's 509.2 m on 21 July 2007, still two and a half years from opening.
Q 04Which architecture firm designed the Burj Khalifa?
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill
The Chicago firm had also designed the Sears Tower and One World Trade Center; Adrian Smith was chief architect and Bill Baker chief structural engineer.
Q 05Which South Korean company was the primary contractor?
Samsung C&T
It had also worked on the Petronas Towers and Taipei 101, and built the Burj with Belgium's BESIX and the local firm Arabtec.
Q 06On what date did construction of the Burj Khalifa begin?
12 January 2004
The exterior was finished on 1 October 2009 and the tower opened on 4 January 2010.
Q 07On what date was the Burj Khalifa officially opened?
4 January 2010
The ceremony featured 10,000 fireworks and 868 strobe lights built into the façade and spire.
Q 08What position did the man the tower was renamed after at its opening hold?
President of the UAE and ruler of Abu Dhabi
Abu Dhabi and the federal government had lent Dubai tens of billions of dollars during the financial crisis; the name change was a surprise at the ceremony.
Q 09Which Islamic monument is cited as an inspiration for the tower's design?
The Great Mosque of Samarra
Its spiralling minaret is echoed in the tower's 27 setbacks, which also break up wind vortices.
Q 10What shape is the Burj Khalifa's footprint?
A Y-shaped tripartite plan
Three wings around a buttressed central core maximise residential and hotel space with views.
Q 11On which desert flower are the tower and its park said to be modelled?
Hymenocallis
Benches and signs in the 11-hectare park carry images of the flower, also called spider lily.
Q 12How many setbacks spiral up the tower, shrinking its cross-section as it rises?
27
They create outdoor terraces and are aligned to minimise vibration from wind eddies.
Q 13How far does the top of the Burj Khalifa sway in total?
1.5 m
The setback arrangement is what keeps the sway that modest at 828 metres.
Q 14How tall would the Burj Khalifa be without its spire?
Q 21How long does it take 36 workers to clean the entire exterior?
Three to four months
Three horizontal tracks carry 1,500 kg bucket machines; the very top is cleaned by rope-access crews.
Q 22How much water does the tower's system supply on an average day?
About 946,000 litres
It runs through 100 km of pipes, with another 213 km for fire systems and 34 km of chilled water for air conditioning.
Q 23To what is the tower's peak cooling load of 46 megawatts compared?
13,000 tons of melting ice per day
585 m
A tall-buildings council study called the empty spire 'vanity height' and noted it 'could be a skyscraper on its own', the 11th tallest in Europe.
Q 15How much structural steel does the spire contain?
More than 4,000 tonnes
Its central pinnacle pipe alone weighs 350 tonnes and stands 200 m tall.
Q 16From which demolished building was some of the Burj Khalifa's structural steel salvaged?
The Palace of the Republic in East Berlin
Over 35,000 tonnes from the former East German parliament were shipped to Dubai after demolition finished in 2008.
Q 17How many elevators does the Burj Khalifa have?
57
Plus eight escalators; the double-deck lifts are the world's fastest at up to 10 m/s, and triple-deckers were considered.
Q 18How many stairs run from the ground floor to the 160th floor?
2,909
Pressurised refuge floors every 13 storeys give people somewhere to shelter on the long walk down in an emergency.
Q 19Roughly how much cooler is the air at the top of the tower than at its base?
About 6 °C
The air-conditioning system draws its intake from the cooler, cleaner upper floors.
Q 20How many reflective glass panels make up the tower's cladding?
More than 26,000
A typical panel is 1.4 m by 3.3 m and weighs about 360 kg.
Condensate from the system irrigates the park with 68 million litres of water a year.
Q 24Which fashion designer's hotel occupies 15 of the tower's lower 39 floors?
Giorgio Armani
The 304-room hotel finally opened on 27 April 2010 after delays; it was the first of four planned Armani hotels.
Q 25How quickly did the tower's 900 private apartments reportedly sell out?
Within eight hours
Ten months after opening 825 of them were nonetheless empty and rents had fallen 40 percent.
Q 26On which floors are the tower's two sky lobbies with swimming pools?
43rd and 76th
The 76th floor pool is an outdoor zero-entry pool.
Q 27On which floor is At.mosphere, the world's highest restaurant at its opening?
122nd
At 442 m it took the record from the CN Tower's 360 restaurant, 350 m up.
Q 28On which floor did the original At the Top observation deck open, the day after the tower did?
124th
It sits at 452 m; a month later a stuck lift trapped tourists for 45 minutes and the deck closed for two months.
Q 29Which building briefly took the world's-highest-observation-deck title from the Burj Khalifa in 2016?
Shanghai Tower
Its deck at 561 m beat the 148th-floor SKY level at 555 m; the Burj reclaimed the record with The Lounge at 585 m in 2019.
Q 30Which country's shores can be seen from the top on clear days at low tide?
Iran
The coast is about 153 km away across the Persian Gulf.