Liberation Tower - Kuwait

The Liberation Tower is the tallest structure in Kuwait. Construction of the tower commenced before the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait on August 2, 1990. It was meant to be called The Kuwait Telecommunications Tower.

When the invasion took place, construction, which was almost half-way complete, was put on hold. However, the structure received no damage, and construction resumed after Saddam's forces were expelled on February 27, 1991. Upon completion in 1993, the tower was renamed the Liberation Tower, symbolizing Kuwait's liberation from Iraq.

The tower contains a revolving restaurant and observation platform (in the first disc-shaped pod; now closed to the public for security reasons), and also houses radio and other telecommunications offices. The structure stands at 372 meters high (1,220 ft) at its pinnacle. The roof of the second pod on the tower is 308 meters high (1,010 ft). It is similar to the CN Tower because it contains a revolving restaurant , observation platform , also houses telecommunications and they look alike.

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Kuwait Towers

The Kuwait Towers are three towers of reinforced concrete in Kuwait City. The main tower is 187 metres high and serves as a restaurant and water tower. It also has a Viewing Sphere which rises to 123 meters above sea level and completes a full round turn every 30 minutes. The second tower is 145.8 metres high and serves as a water tower. The third tower houses equipment to control the flow of electricity and illuminates the two bigger towers. The towers were designed by Sune Lindström and Malene Björn and were built by Energoprojekt, a company from Belgrade, Serbia. They opened to the public in March of 1979. The towers were damaged heavily by the Iraqis during their occupation of Kuwait from 1990 to 1991. In 1991, after the liberation of Kuwait City during the First Gulf War, Vic Clarke of Nottingham UK abseiled the Kuwait Water Towers during structural surveys. Mr. Clarke was introduced into Kuwait by Mr. Michael Stewart, of The Stewart Group International, also from Nottingham UK. There was substantial shell, and bullet damage to the exterior of the towers. The interior damage was mainly to electrical gear, mostly lift equipment. Some of the large triangular glazed panels shown in the photograph, were also damaged by shell fire.

History

The conception of the Towers with three structures was initiated in 1962. Construction commenced in 1975 and in March 1979 the project was finally inaugurated. The three towers were built for multi-purpose operations. One, the needle shaped tower, provides electricity to the suburbs in Kuwait. The Second, middle, tower stores up to one million gallons of water.

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