The golden sphere
A restaurant above the deck.
Hamza A. Durrani — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Aymanzaid2 — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Unnaugan — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Loekids — Public domain · Third Eye from Kuwait, Kuwait — CC BY 2.0 · B.alotaby — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Jon Rawlinson — CC BY 2.0 · Jon Rawlinson — CC BY 2.0
A 267-metre skyscraper in Riyadh's Al Olaya district, the centrepiece of the Al Faisaliah Center. Designed by Foster + Partners and completed in 2000, it was Saudi Arabia's first skyscraper and its tallest building until 2002, and it is named after King Faisal bin Abdulaziz. The tower is a slender pyramid braced by horizontal struts across its faces and crowned by a huge golden sphere. Its design drew on the Umar ibn al-Khattab Mosque in Al-Jouf province, and its lobby holds a stained-glass work by the artist Brian Clarke made with Norman Foster. The complex includes a thirty-floor office tower, a five-star hotel, a three-storey shopping mall and a banqueting and conference hall. An observation deck 200 metres up looks out over Riyadh, and above it, inside the sphere, a restaurant has views in every direction. Looking at the tower and visiting the mall are free, while the observation deck has its own ticket, so check prices and hours locally. The tower is at its best in the evening, when the sphere and facades are lit.
A restaurant above the deck.
200 m up.
The lit sphere and facades.
Al Olaya district, Riyadh
Yes, there is an observation deck 200 metres up with its own ticket; check the price and hours locally.