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Carlton Centre

Johannesburg, South Africa

The 383rd tallest building in the world

222.5 m · 730 ft

The Carlton Centre is a 50-storey skyscraper and shopping centre located on Commissioner Street in central Johannesburg, South Africa. At 223 metres (732 ft), it was the tallest building in Africa for 46 years from its completion in 1973 until 2019. It is today the continent's fifth tallest building after The Leonardo (also in Johannesburg), the Mohammed VI Tower in Morocco, the Great Mosque of Algiers Tower in Algeria and the Iconic Tower in Egypt. From completion until 1977 it was also the tallest building in the Southern Hemisphere: the only South African building to have held that title. The foundations of the two buildings in the complex are 5 m (16 ft) in diameter and extend 15 m (49 ft) down to the bedrock, 35 m (115 ft) below street level. The building houses both offices and shops, and has over 46 per cent of the floor area below ground level. The Carlton Centre is linked to the Carlton Hotel by a below-ground shopping centre with over 180 shops.

Building data from Wikidata (CC0); heights normalised. Summary from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).

More tall buildings in South Africa

  1. Ponte City Apartments172.8 m
  2. South African Reserve Bank Building150 m
  3. 88 on Field147 m
  4. Trust Bank Building140 m
  5. Michelangelo Towers140 m

Other tall buildings worldwide

  1. Burj Khalifa · Dubai829.8 m
  2. Merdeka 118 · Kuala Lumpur678.9 m
  3. Shanghai Tower · Shanghai632 m
  4. Abraj Al Bait · Mecca601 m
  5. Makkah Clock Royal Tower Hotel · Mecca601 m
  6. Ping An Finance Centre · Futian Subdistrict599 m
  7. Lotte World Tower · Songpa District555.7 m
  8. One World Trade Center · Manhattan546.2 m