Cars and people look much smaller from 1,601 feet above the ground, and they look even smaller at 1,821 feet.
The Burj Khalifa building in Dubai trumped the Canton Tower in China by 220 feet to claim the world's highest observation deck, according to Guiness World Records. The 2,717-foot-tall Burj Khalifa also holds the record for the world's tallest building.
The new observation deck on the 148th floor opened to the public on Oct. 15. Spectators previously could view the Dubai cityscape and Persian Gulf from the 124th floor. They must now change elevators at the 125th floor to access the upper deck, but the lower deck will remain open.
Visitors can pre-book a ticket to the top for Dh400 per person (about $109), or purchase a ticket at the building for Dh500 per person (about $136). The Burj Khalifa skyscraper welcomed 1.9 million visitors to the 124th floor observation deck last year, according to the Associated Press.
The skyscraper opened in 2010 and holds world records for the tallest structure (overtaking the KVLY-TV mast in Blanchard, N.D.) and free-standing structure (overtaking Toronto's CN Tower), according to the Burj Khalifa website. It also claims the highest number of stories (more than 160), highest occupied floor, the tallest service elevator and the elevator with the longest travel distance in the world.
Other high observation decks include the Shanghai World Financial Centre in Shanghai, China, at 1,555 feet, the CN Tower at 1,465 feet and the Willis Tower (formerly known as the Sears Tower) in Chicago at 1,353 feet. The highest observation deck at New York's Empire State Building stands 1,211 feet above the ground, but the more frequented open-air observation deck on the 86th floor stands at 1,050 feet.
