World's 'ugliest landmark' reaches for the sky again

Published on Thursday 17 July 2008 22:11

ONCE dubbed "the worst building in the history of mankind", North Korea's phantom hotel is stirring back to life. The 105-storey Ryugyong Hotel in Pyongyang is again under construction after a 16-year lull, and Egypt's Orascom Group has recently begun refurbishing the top floors.

The hotel consists of three wings rising at 75 degree angles capped by several floors arranged in rings supposed to hold five revolving restaurants and an observation deck.

A creaky building crane has for years sat unused at the top of the 3,000-room hotel in a city where tourists are only occasionally allowed to visit.

The communist North started construction in 1987, in a possible fit of jealousy at South Korea, which was about to host the 1988 Olympics and show off to the world the success of its rapidly developing economy.

But by 1992, work was halted after the North's main benefactor, the Soviet Union, dissolved in 1991 and funding for the hotel had vanished.