Several features of the hotel required complex engineering feats to achieve. The hotel rests on an artificial island constructed 280 m (920 ft) offshore. To secure a foundation, the builders drove 230 forty-metre (130 ft) long concrete piles into the sand.^[11]

Engineers created a surface layer of large rocks, which is circled with a concrete honeycombpattern, which serves to protect the foundation from erosion. It took three years to reclaim the land from the sea, but less than three years to construct the building itself. The building contains over 70,000 m³ (92,000 cu yd) of concrete and 9,000 tonnes of steel.^[11]

Inside the building, the atrium is 180 m (590 ft) tall.

Burj Al Arab is the world's second tallest hotel (not including buildings with mixed use). The structure of ...