Mecca to be home to world's largest hotel

It seems in the Middle East, bigger is always better and now Saudi Arabia is set to build the world's largest hotel.

Located in the holy city of Mecca, the Abraj Kudai hotel will be 45 storeys high and feature 10,000 rooms, 70 restaurants, four helipads and five floors that will be exclusively used by the Saudi royal family.

The project, due to open in 2017, is set to cost around $4.5 billion and is modelled on a “traditional desert fortress."

The Grand Mosque in Mecca is already loomed over by the second tallest building in the world, the Abraj al-Bait clocktower, home to thousands more luxury hotel rooms.

The mosque itself is undergoing renovations to expand the capacity of its prayer halls by 2040.

Currently, Las Vegas is home to the world's largest hotel in terms of the number of guest rooms with the MGM Grand hosting 6,198 rooms.

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Irfan Al-Alawi, director of the Islamic Heritage Research Foundation, said the hotel was proof the city was "turning into Mecca-hattan."

Mecca receives around two million people for the annual Hajj pilgrimage, but the city has become increasingly popular as a venue for weddings and conferences.