The tallest lighthouse in the world is located at Jeddah, in Saudi Arabia, and reaches the incredible height of 133 meters – to give you an idea, it is a few meters lower than the UniCredit Tower Of Milan. An interesting aspect of this building, whose full name is Jeddah Port Control Toweris the fact of don’t be a “traditional lighthouse”This term refers to headlights whose main purpose is to provide navigation support: in this case, however, the purpose of the tower is to host the port control room. Nevertheless it is classified as a “lighthouse” and not as a simple skyscraper because in fact on its summit, at a height of 137 metersthere is a light that produces white flashes at 20 second intervals.
The structure is located on the north side of the entrance to the modern port of Jeddah, and was built between 1987 and the 1990 and is mainly composed of concrete and steel. Its shape is quite recognizable and is composed of two pillars on the top of which there is a spherical structure which, as anticipated, hosts the port control room and a balcony panoramic – even if access to the building is forbidden to the public, unless you have specific authorizations.
For the sake of completeness it is also right to mention the tallest traditional lighthouse in the world: in this case the primacy goes to the Île Vierge lighthousein France, which measures 82.5 meters – that is 1.6 times lower than the one in Jeddah. This structure was built in Brittany between the 1897 and the 1902 and also holds the record for tallest brick lighthouse in the worldbeing composed almost entirely of granite rocks.
