In today’s article, we dive into the world of the most difficult things on earth, the most powerful and most recent of all man-made objects.
With everything from massive buildings to colossal machines, I’ve done my homework and rounded up the top 10 heaviest objects in the world, each listed under different categories.
These objects are sure to blow your mind (and break your scale). Of course, I didn’t put billion-pound objects on my bathroom.
That’s why I made sure to offer some very practical comparisons and short facts to help you better understand the weight of each object. Top 10 Heaviest Objects in The World Before going into the specifics of each object, it’s worth to note that due to the logistical difficulties of measuring the weight and mass of such objects, their weight totals are estimates of the data available at the time of this list.
So, without further ado, let’s start with the least difficult object on our list.Washington Monument (Washington, DC); 162.2 million pounds The Washington Monument is an impressive stone structure on the National Mall in Washington, DC, and attracts over 500,000 visitors each year.
Despite its massive weight, the Washington Monument is still not the heaviest man-made object in the world. The 162 million pounds make it the heaviest in the United States.
To put its weight in perspective, 162.2 million pounds is equal to 12,135 African elephants! Moreover, The Washington Monument s made of over 30 thousand granite blocks.
You can build 30 average sized houses with just one of those blocks! Submerged communication cables (under oceans); 176.4 million pounds Ahoy Matey!
And the heaviest of them all weighs a whopping 176.4 million pounds! Think of 176.4 million pounds differently.
The largest animal in history is a blue whale, which has been clocked at 199 tons (or 438,719.5 pounds). To match the heaviest underwater communication cable out there, it would take about 510 blue whales.
Yes, that’s almost 3% of all remaining blue whales worldwide. Another interesting aspect is that these cables can stretch thousands and thousands of miles long, even longer than the distance from New York to Australia! 90 undersea cable systems that stretch a total of more than 438,000 miles, which in total would be enough to circle the Earth’s equator more than 17 times. The freight train (Western Australia); 199.5 million pounds Next on our list is a 20-year-old freight train in Western Australia.
The heaviest freight train ever as well as the longest at 4.5 miles long and 199.5 million pounds. To put that weight in perspective.
The General Sherman Tree, also known as the giant sequoia tree, is by far the heaviest living thing in Earth’s history and the largest living organism (by volume) on the planet. to 6000 tons or 12 million pounds.
Also, you need about 16 and a half Giant Sequoias to match the weight of this extra large freight train.Nimitz Class aircraft carrier (various); 204 million pound Nimitz-class aircraft carriers are the largest warships ever built.
And you can bet that colossal mass held the whole airport worth of planes at a time. Let’s look at 204 million pounds from another angle.
According to a study by the University of Idaho, the average NFL player weighs 245.86 pounds. Accounting for 32 teams with 53 players on each roster, that’s 1,696 players who gain a total of 416,978 pounds.
You would need 489 National Football League’s worth of players to equal the weight of one single Nimitz carrier. SSCV Sleipnir crane vessel; 602 million pounds The SSCV Sleipnir crane weighs a staggering 273,000 tons (fully loaded)!
This ship is a marvel of engineering, and it is amazing to think how much weight it can lift and move with ease. Sleipnir is truly a beast of the sea, with two revolving cranes, each capable of lifting a whopping 10,000 tons!
It is no wonder that this vessel is the largest crane vessel in the world, with its eight columns and streamlined pontoons designed to reduce drag and provide quieter movements under higher sea states. So what is 273 tons?
Well, Sleipnir makes the Titanic look like a bath toy. The Titanic weighed about 52,000 metric tons, which is less than a fifth of the weight of Sleipnir.
In the 1980s, Nicolae Ceausescu commissioned the palace. However, he never witnessed the project being completed, because the civil uprising executed him in 1989, five years before the completion of the palace. 1.6 billion pounds.
It is also the second largest administrative building in the world after the Pentagon.Gullfaks C installation oil storage facility (North Sea); 3 billion pounds First installed on November 4, 1989 and got to pump a year later.
The Gullfaks C installation oil storage facility stationed in the North Sea around Norway is the heaviest moving man-made object in history. This mammoth facility produces over 250,000 barrels of oil daily, so it makes sense that there are 3 billion pounds (or 1,500,000 tons ).
Well, Both Gullfaks C and the famous Statue of Liberty are considered massive, man-made objects that would make you “woah” when you see them. the weight of Gullfaks C.Great Pyramid of Khufu (Egypt); 12 billion pounds The Great Pyramid of Khufu, also known as the Pyramid of Giza, is a true wonder of the world. Although not exactly the largest pyramid in the world (the Pyramid of Cholula took that place), it is still the largest of Egypt’s pyramids and the oldest of the seven wonders of the world. It consists of 2.3 million stone blocks, each weighing about two and a half tons.
Do the math, and that’s a whopping 12 billion pounds (or 5,750,000 tons).
Imagine it this way: This thing is so massive that Godzilla looks like a small gecko. What better way to compare the pyramid of Khufu Suite to that of another wonder of the world, the Eiffel Tower?
This iconic structure may not be as old as the Khufu Pyramid, but it is still a heavyweight champion in its own right. However, in terms of weight, it’s like comparing a feather to a bowling ball.
In fact, it would take about 600 Eiffel Towers to match the weight of Khufu’s pyramid.
That’s a lot of metal!Three Gorges Dam (China); 20.8 billion pounds Besides being a true engineering marvel, The Three Gorges Dam in China is also the second tallest man-made object on earth, weighing an astonishing 20.82 billion pounds (or 10.42 million tons). Power station that generates over 22,500 megawatts of electricity!
This massive dam is about 1.4 miles (2.3 km) long and 607 feet (185 meters) high, taller than the Statue of Liberty. its maximum amount of water, making each day 0.06 microseconds longer.How massive could 20.82 billion pounds be?
Well, the largest known elephant in history was a 24,000 pound male elephant from Angola.
To equal the massiveness of the Three Gorges Dam, you would need 867,500 giant Angolan elephants. Also remember the Nimitz-class aircraft carriers we mentioned earlier?
If you get your hands on about 123 fully loaded Warcraft of those, that would do. The Great Wall of China; 116 billion pounds This might shock some, but no man-made object in history is heavier than the Great Wall of China.
13,000 miles long also makes it the longest wall in the world. While you can’t see it from space, this wall has enough bragging rights to hold off the rest of civilization.
The largest animal in history is a blue whale that weighed 173 tons or 346,000 pounds to match the Great Wall of China; You must clone that special Blue Whale 335,260 times.
Unfortunately, today there are only about 25,000 (at best) blue whales left in the world. Honorable Mentions Below is another set of objects that didn’t quite make it to our list of the heavigst things on Earth.
This massive aircraft is the largest commercial aircraft currently in production, with a maximum take-off weight of around 975,000 pounds (442,253 kg).
The LHC weighs about 38,000 tons (83.7 million pounds), which is about the same weight as your mother. The ITER Tokamak (France) Currently under construction, The ITER Tokamak in France is a giant fusion reactor designed to replicate the process that powers the Sun and other stars.
This massive machine weighs in at a staggering 23,000 tons (50.7 million pounds), roughly equivalent to 3,176 average cars.
Standing at a height of about 2,717 feet (828 m), it is more than twice as tall as the Eiffel Tower. Burj Khalifa weighs about 500,000 tons (1.1 billion pounds), which is equivalent to the weight of about 100,000 elephants. . In perspective, it is equivalent to the weight of 6 USS Gerald R.
Ford aircraft carrier or 1,818 blue whales. The Statue of Unity (India): The Statue of Unity, a towering bronze effigy of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, an Indian statesman and a revered champion of Independence, is a testament to the pure human capacity for monumental. Performance. This imposing structure stands an impressive 597 feet high (equivalent to 182 meters) and weighs an astonishing 1.6 billion pounds (approximately 730,000 kilograms), an amount equivalent to the weight of 2,186 elephants! of bronze and 1,850 tons of bronze cladding, and was created by over 3,000 diligent workers who worked tirelessly for 56 months to bring this wonder to life.
The Statue of Unity is undoubtedly a true representation of human ingenuity and creativity. Conclusion: Some of the heaviest objects in the world are truly fragile, ranging from the Washington Monument to the SSCV Sleipnir crane ship. As mentioned earlier, I’ ve selected these objects based on information from reliable sources such as the Guinness World Records and the National Institute of Standards and Technology.Also made sure to offer practical comparisons and brief facts, this list gives an insight into the logistics and engineering feats necessary to create and moving such massive objects.