The Burj Khalifa has more than one official height. As of November 2026, the CTBUH lists it at 828 meters (2,717 feet) to the architectural top, and 829.8 meters (2,723 feet) to the tip including its antenna. To the highest occupied floor it is only 584.5 meters (1,918 feet). The tallest buildings are ranked by height to the architectural top. A spire counts because it is part of the design. An antenna does not, because equipment like antennae and signs can be added, shortened, removed or replaced as technology changes.

The Lincoln Cathedral in England had its central tower raised to 271 feet (83 meters) by 1311. A tall wooden spire on top reputedly brought it to 525 feet (160 meters), the world's tallest structure at the time, though some historians doubt that; a storm blew the spire down in 1548. Strasbourg Cathedral in France, 142 meters (466 feet) tall, was the world's tallest building from 1647 to 1874, a stretch of 227 years. It lost the title when St. Nikolai's Church in Hamburg was completed.

Cologne Cathedral in Germany was finished in 1880 after 632 years of building. At 157 meters (515 feet) it was the world's tallest building, but only for four years, until the Washington Monument was completed. The Washington Monument was built in two phases, one private (1848 to 1854) and one public (1876 to 1884). When it was completed in 1884 it was the tallest building in the world. Its 555-foot height is ten times the width of its base.

The Eiffel Tower passed the Washington Monument during construction. It held the record as the tallest human-made structure for 41 years, until the Chrysler Building was finished in 1930; it was the first structure in the world to rise higher than both 200 and 300 meters. The Empire State Building went up at a pace of about four and a half stories a week. Construction began on 17 March 1930, and it was finished in one year and 45 days. Its 102 stories made it the world's tallest building for the next forty years.

The steel for a skyscraper has to be made, shipped and bolted together on a schedule. The Empire State Building design changed 16 times, yet 3,000 workers finished it in one year and 45 days; it holds about 60,000 tons of steel, 10 million bricks and 200,000 cubic feet of Indiana limestone and granite. The Tokyo Skytree in Japan is 634 meters (2,080 feet) tall. Its builders picked that number because it is easy to remember. In Japanese wordplay, 6, 3 and 4 sound like Musashi, an old name for the region where the tower stands.

Skyscrapers use a steel or concrete frame. The outside walls hang from the frame like a curtain instead of holding up the building, which allows big windows; the Home Insurance Building in Chicago is often called the first skyscraper. A tower can only count as a building if at least half of its height has rooms people can use. Radio and TV towers that are mostly empty frame do not make the list of tallest buildings.

Words to know

• spire: pointed tower top
• occupied: in use
• architectural: of the design
• cathedral: large church