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Tower Facts
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Name:
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Liberation Tower (or Kuwait Telecommunications Tower)
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Location:
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Kuwait City, Kuwait
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Height:
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372 m (1220 ft)
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Constructed:
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1987 - 1993 (with interruption during Iraqi Occupation)
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Architects:
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Not Determined
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Notes on Visit:
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At the time of writing (December 2019), the second
tallest tower in Kuwait, after the 414 m (1,358 ft) Al
Hamra Tower, and billed as the fifth tallest
telecommunications tower in the world. The visit, during
the aforementioned month, involved walking up to near
the base of the tower. Whilst the tower includes a
revolving restaurant and a revolving observation
platform, it was not possible to go up it; due to
security reasons, the tower is open for the public only
in the morning of Kuwait’s Liberation Day (7am to 12
noon, 26th February).
The tower is a vertical cantilever
structure, constructed using prestressed concrete with
ceramic tile cladding on the façade from base to first
mezzanine level. It includes three working areas - a
public communications centre, the observation/restaurant
area, and the adjacent plant and equipment structure.
The revolving mezzanine level contains six floors above
the observation deck which contain a number of
government offices and the tower has 18 high-speed
lifts/elevators.
Construction of the tower commenced
in 1987, but work on the half-completed construction was
halted when Iraq invaded Kuwait in August 1990. Unlike
the Avala Tower in Serbia featured on the previous page
(Link
Here), which was completely destroyed as a result
of military conflict, the Liberation Tower was, against
all odds, undamaged. After the Iraqi withdrawal of
troops on 26th February 1991, construction of the tower
recommenced and it was eventually completed in 1993.
Becoming Kuwait's striking symbol of freedom, it was
thus named the “Liberation Tower” and officially
unveiled by the late Kuwaiti Amir, Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmad
Al-Jaber Al-Sabah on 10th March 1996.
n.b. although it
was not possible to ascend the tower for panoramic views
of the city, a visit was made to the famous Kuwait
Towers (part of a system of water towers in the city),
where a rotating observation deck was visited and this
is documented on the “Kuwait” page in the Travel section
of this website.
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