Twenty-five years after construction began, the Ryugyong Hotel in North Korea is set to open next year.
The huge spaceship-shaped structure, known as the Hotel of Doom, began rocketing up in 1987 and was due to be finished in 1989.
Work halted in the early 90s as North Korea suffered an economic crisis when the Soviet Union was dissolved and cash from Moscow dried up.
The 1,082ft-tall hotel was meant to steal the limelight from hated neighbour South Korea when it hosted the 1988 Olympics.
Towering over the capital Pyongyang, the building was set to be the world’s tallest hotel but the Rose Tower in Dubai – which opened in 2009 after taking three years to build – is 11ft higher at 1,093ft.
In the 90s it was thought that the Ryugyong’s poor quality concrete and its wonky elevator shafts meant it would never open.
Esquire magazine described the structure as “the worst building in the history of mankind”.
Then last year work began again as its exterior was coated in £111 million of glass after an Egyptian company took over the development.
The Ryugyong, the 47th tallest building in the world, has 105 floors, which is more than any other hotel. Source: www.mirror.co.uk
