At 1,080 feet, North Korea’s Ryugyong Hotel in Pyongyang is the tallest unoccupied building in the world, according to Guinness World Records.
The 105-story “Hotel of Doom,” which is also North Korea’s tallest building, has never hosted a single guest, but it remains a subject of international fascination.
Here’s the story behind the abandoned skyscraper that dominates the capital city’s skyline.
Construction on the Ryugyong Hotel began in Pyongyang in 1987, but halted due to economic troubles in North Korea.
When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, North Korea lost its main trading partner and source of aid, spurring an economic crisis.
The hotel reached its full height in 1992, but the inside was never completed.
The Ryugyong Hotel is 105 stories tall and is sometimes referred to as the 105 Building.
To this day, it has never hosted a single guest.
Despite its aversion to foreign visitors, North Korea does have several functional hotels in Pyongyang. Until the Ryugyong Hotel is completed, the Yanggakdo International Hotel is the city’s largest, and the Ryanggang Hotel is widely regarded as the fanciest.
Its pyramid shape dominates the Pyongyang skyline from miles away.
Each of the building’s three sections, which join together at the top, are 328 feet (100 meters) long, according to Atlas Obscura.
At the very top of the building, an eight-story cone-shaped section was supposed to feature revolving restaurants.
It remains empty, like the rest of the hotel.
More external work began on the hotel in 2008 with the installation of glass panels over its entire surface.
An Egyptian contractor, the Orascom group, took over the project and revived construction in 2008, according to Reuters.
It would cost an estimated $2 billion to finally finish the Ryugyong Hotel, according to Reuters.
North Korea’s gross domestic product is around $40 billion, according to the CIA’s World Factbook. That makes the cost of finishing the building around 5% of the country’s entire GDP.
In the meantime, North Korea has found other uses for the building.
Pyongyang celebrated May Day in 2009 with a fireworks display framing the Ryugyong Hotel.
It serves as a dramatic backdrop for arts troupes’ performances.
The troupes’ performances usually contain propaganda messages. North Korea sent an arts troupe to the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea.
It also provides a backdrop for propaganda messages made up of over 100,000 LED screens.
In 2018, lighting designer Kim Yong Il created a light show comprised of political slogans and party symbols. It plays on the building’s surface for several hours every night, according to the Associated Press.
The building itself still doesn’t have electricity, and there’s no expected completion date, but there have been new signs of construction progress.
Alek Sigley, an Australian student who was studying for his master’s degree in Korean literature at Kim Il Sung University, tweeted about new signage above the main entrance of the hotel in June 2019. In July, Sigley was detained for a week and subsequently released after North Korean authorities accused him of committing “spying acts” against the state.
It continues to live up to its nickname, “Hotel of Doom.”