Saudi Arabia Unveils World's Biggest Clock in Mecca, Hopes to Replace Greenwich with 'Mecca Time'

sigh .........

From: The entire western world
To: Saudi Arabia

-No thanks.

Wow... thats all I got to say. And not about the clock

Come on, guys. That's a lot of work to build a really, really big clock. The least we can do to repay them is change our time zones. It just doesn't seem right to let all that hard work go to waste. Come on. Do it.

Do you think the Catholics will be able to build a church a few blocks away?

We're team players. Let's just change time zones. It's no big deal, right? While we're at it, can we end Daylight Savings Time? Forever? Please?

Looks like an awesome clock. Too bad I'll never get to see it in person....

I think I'd like to change the standard time from greenwich or this craptastic Big Ben copy to wherever I am at the time. I'll never need a watch again. Everyone can just inconvenience themselves to me. As i fly people will have to change their watches constantly. Ha Ha, foolish humans bow to me, your new time overlord.

As to the people building it, you've already messed things up enough. Clocks based on 12, geometry based on sacred 12 and multiples of 12, 365 days for a year related to a circle didn't work so just change it to 360 degrees in a circle, nice call we've been stuck with that nightmare for centuries. That single ancient design decision has probably pushed us back hundreds of years in tech. You've done enough. Seriously.

The Saudis are making a power play for the control of time, eh?

I say we build one twice as large on the East Coast with a Starbucks inside, ATM service, and a banner that reads "In the Name of Freedom" while flashing red, white and blue once a day to signal Happy Hour.

That'll show 'em.

Hell yeah, jspinz!

haha jspinz nice one

the only problem with the Saudi plan is that non Muslims cant actually go there to see it, their holy sites are closed off to 'kuffars', non Muslims. Surely this is the best place from where to base our time on.

This country is so backward, religiously fanatic and plain idiotic that I'm surprised they actually know what year this is. Its 700 A.D. according to them.

Lets fly a drone into it.

@ rogue squirrel- it's not in Pakistan so they probably won't want to waste a drone on it, lol.

@paulcrosoft. you're banned from posting ever again.
@RogueSquirrel, I was going to say an automated 747, with a cardboard cutout "pilot" of Mickey Mouse.
@Jspinz, that's a great one!
And as for my own opinion, they are *mostly* a bunch of fanatical people who don't deserve to breathe. I mean come on, they bow in the direction of a devilbedamned meteorite. As for Religion, it is the most devastating of man's inventions. So Hell's no to them changing a single Planck length of our time.. and keep your silly clock.

He who says it cannot be done, should not interrupt the one who is doing it.

@kamaz You. Are. An. Idiot. Have you been to Saudi Arabia? Do you know Saudis?
Oh and by the way, they don't think it's 700 AD because AD stands for Anno Dominum. They aren't Christian. They have their own calendar system like the Chinese. Do some homework.

I just love that I was banned because I commented against racist comments and yet here are a whole group of comments which are either racist, offensive or just rude.

Thanks PopSci, way to be fair and even handed.

Ban me again if you must.

@ Dr.Strangelove

I think your Latin is a bit off...Isn't it Anno Domini (in the year of our Lord...

I reading the comments and wondered where all the hate where? Then I just realized that probably a whole bunch was blocked/deleted and i only found the hate in the end with the newest comments.

They made a awesome clock, said:
"pretty please, change GMT?"
The west will/have responded:
"eh...no?.... But hey! nice clock"
End of story?

you all need to be stoned for suck negative remarks

you all need to be stoned for such negative remarks

You Build a big clock... cool. That's neat. Hope to see it someday. But then you Demand the global reference of time? Wait... what? Are they serious? Islamic, African America, Asian, German... it doesn't matter who you are. That's just retarded. Just because you have an ungodly amount of money to build a big golden clock doesn't mean you have the right to global time.

No its an attempt by the Saudi’s to standardize the beginning of Ramadan. Since it’s based on the sighting of the new moon, depending on where you are on earth will define the start. Thus two start dates could exist; and believe it or not the Muslims argue over this. The Saudi’s are just pushing the "Mecca standard"

STOP! Mecca Time! Ohhh ohhh oh ohhhh

cool clock, but do you honestly think _anyone_ working on the project was actually expecting them to change the established time zone system? I highly doubt that, there's no point anyway.

Itd be awesome if you had to wind it and they had helis or planes do it then i would change my watch

I say we turn one of the "O"s in the Hollywood sign into a clock and petition Greenwich to make that our global clock. The west coast is the better part of the U.S. anyways and everyone knows the world revolves around.. or at least in Universal City.

Wow... all I have to say is nice clock and isn't there something charitable and helpful you could be doing with all that wasted money?

You ever had a nightmare of a slowmo train wreck? That's how I feel watching these... muslims make their plays for world domination. Nobody's going to realize that something needs to be done until the cost in blood and treasure goes through the roof.

well.. first of all.. with all do respect,,i wanna say smthn important to those racist stupid arrogant people with their stupid comments..
you know nothin about islam or muslims.. all you see is a small group of ppl ruining the image os islam and muslims.. so to those ppl who judge other muslims without even having he chance to know them..FUCK YOU.. YOU ARROGANT STUPIDZ !!

i kno muslims.. and i kno christians .. all kindz off ppl.. but i've never met or heard of such arrongts like some of you here..

STOP JUDGING MUSLIMS and get to kno them before you become bitches like this..

and why not replace GMT With makkah time ??!!

and yea.. for those who say "if saudi arabia has that amount of money ..why dont they spend it on charity rather than building gold clocks?? "

my comment to that would be.. since the U.S has that amount of money ..why dont they stop killing and accusing arabs and muslims of being retarded..
we have more knowledge and science more than you do..

your arrogance is blocking it away so you cant see it .. !!

"and why not replace GMT With makkah time ??!!"

Why should we?

It's not the size of your clock that matters...it's how you use it.

they want to be Timelords, should concentrate on Tardis construction.

Well at long last
The arab world is finally catchig up to the west.. they are building a clock... wow... just wow !!

I think the time zone idea was pathetic . one time is all we need .

You can't clone asimo and claim to be the front line of android technology. You cant clone big ben, reface it and make it larger and claim to be the center of time. If you want to be the standard then stop copying the west and make some inovations of your own accord. This is what happens when developing nations get too much money and grow tired of living in the shadow of the western world. But you are just furthering concepts that are western in nature which just shows that the west is still the standard. If you really want the world to folow then develop a superior system and you won't even have to spend all that money making a clock developed by westerners.

Hi, I'm Saudi and live in Saudi Arabia and all I can say is that this theory is not true. We all here have seen the opening of this project but never heard anyone talking about moving the time center from Greenwich to Mecca. This project is a huge five hotels towers that they've top it with this huge clock.

Hi Abdullah, I'm from Indonesia the largest moslem population country, today (Sept 13 2010) our national TV station, Metro TV reported that the Saudi Arabian government's goal to build the clock is to shift the world time standard from Greenwich to Mecca. At least 20% of our population (237.556.363) witnessed the news.
I think it is a smart choice by the Saudi Arabian government, to some part of the world they declare it as an effort to swift the world time standard. While to the other part (of the world) they promote it as a huge hotel that they've top it with this huge clock just in case the idea of swifting the world time standard is not popular.
So they may have at least more than one aliby. Every coin has two different surfaces, but they still remain just one coin.

It seems to me they were insecure about the size of their...clocks, so they built an even bigger one to compensate! would have a field day with whoever came up with this!

*freud would have a field day with this!