In today’s article, we will dive into the world of the heaviest things on Earth, the most powerful and amazing 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, all listed in several categories.
These items are sure to blow your mind (and break your scales). Obviously, I didn’t put a billion pound objects on my bathroom scale.
Instead, I compiled a list based on information from sources such as Guinness World Records, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and other scientific and engineering sources. In addition, it is quite difficult for our brain to perceive huge numbers accurately.
That’s why I’ve made sure to provide some very practical comparisons and quick facts to help you better understand the weight of each item. Top 10 Heaviest Objects in the World Before we get into the details of each object, it is worth noting that due to the logistical difficulty of measuring the weight and mass of such objects, their total weights are estimates obtained from data available at the time of this list.
So without further ado, let’s start with the easiest object on our list. Washington Monument (Washington, DC); The £162.2 million Washington Monument is an impressive stone structure located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., and attracts over 500,000 visitors each year. It stands at 555 feet (169 meters) tall and weighs a massive 90,854 tons (82,506 metric tons).
Despite its enormous weight, the Washington Monument is still not the heaviest man-made object in the world. However, that 162 million pounds makes it the heaviest in the US.
To put its weight into perspective, £162.2 million is the equivalent of 12,135 African elephants! Moreover, the Washington Monument is made of over 30,000 granite blocks.
You could build 30 average sized houses with just one of those blocks! Submerged communication cable (under the ocean); £176.4m Gosh mate!
And the heaviest of all weighs a whopping 176.4 million pounds! Think of £176.4m another way.
The largest animal in history is the blue whale, weighing 199 tons (or 438,719.5 pounds). To equal the heaviest submerged communications cable, it would take about 510 blue whales.
Yes, that’s almost 3% of all remaining blue whales in the world. Another interesting aspect is that these cables can stretch thousands and thousands of miles, even longer than the distance from New York to Australia! For example, in 2017 AT&T operated nearly 90 underwater cable systems, spanning a total of more than 438,000 miles, which would be enough to circle the Earth’s equator more than 17 times in total. Freight Train (Western Australia); £199.5m Next on our list is a 20-year-old freight train in Western Australia.
Being the heaviest freight train ever, as well as the longest at 4.5 miles long and 199.5 million pounds. Let’s put that weight into 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. These redwoods of almost unimaginable size can reach 311 feet in height and weigh 6,000 tons or 12 million pounds.
Even still, you’d need about 16 and a half giant redwoods to match the weight of this particularly large freight train. Nimitz-class aircraft carrier (various); The £204 million Nimitz-class aircraft carriers are the largest Warcrafts ever built.
And you can bet that colossal mass held an entire airport’s worth of planes at one time. Let’s look at £204 million from another angle.
According to a University of Idaho study, the average NFL player weighs 245.86 pounds. Taking into account the 32 teams with 53 players on each roster, that’s 1,696 players winning a total of £416,978.
You would need 489 players in the National Football League to equal the weight of one Nimitz carrier.SSCV Sleipnir crane vessel; 602 million pounds. The SSCV Sleipnir crane weighs an incredible 273,000 tons (fully loaded)!
This vessel is a marvel of engineering and it is amazing to imagine how much weight it can lift and move with ease. Sleipnir is truly a beast of the sea, with two swivel cranes, each capable of lifting an incredible 10,000 tons!
It’s no wonder this vessel is the largest crane vessel in the world, with its eight masts and aerodynamic pontoons designed to reduce drag and allow for calmer movements in higher seas. So what exactly is 273 tons?
Well, Sleipnir makes Titanic look like a bath toy. Titanic weighed about 52,000 metric tons, less than a fifth of Sleipnir’s weight.
In the 1980s, Nicolae Ceausescu ordered the construction of the palace. However, he never witnessed the completion of the project because he was executed in a civil uprising in 1989, five years before the completion of the palace. The Palace of Parliament is the heaviest building in the world at a ridiculous £1.6 billion.
It is also the second largest administrative building in the world after the Pentagon. Gullfaks C oil storage installation (North Sea); 3 billion pounds. First installed on November 4, 1989, pumping began a year later.
The Gullfaks C oil storage facility stationed in the North Sea around Norway is the heaviest man-made moving object in history. This mammoth facility produces more than 250,000 barrels of oil per day, so it makes sense that it weighs 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 go “wow” when you see them. However, you will need about 6000 clones of freedom status weight Gullfaks C. Great Pyramid of Khufu (Egypt); £12 billion The Great Pyramid of Khufu, also known as the Pyramid of Giza, is a true wonder of the world. Although it is not quite the largest pyramid in the world (the Pyramid of Cholula took that place), it is still the largest pyramid in Egypt 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 it’s a whopping 12 billion pounds (or 5,750,000 tons).
Think of it this way: This thing is so massive that Godzilla looks like a small gecko. What better way to compare the suite of Khufu’s pyramid to that of another wonder of the world, the Eiffel Tower?
This iconic structure may not be as old as Khufu’s pyramid, but it’s still a heavyweight champion in its own right. However, in terms of weight, it’s like comparing a quill to a bowling ball.
In fact, it would take about 600 Eiffel Towers to reach 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 heaviest man-made structure on Earth, weighing a whopping 20.82 billion pounds (or 10.42 million tons). In terms of installed capacity, it is the largest power plant in the world, producing over 22,500 megawatts of electricity!
This huge dam is approximately 2.3 km long and 185 meters high, taller than the Statue of Liberty. In fact, this dam is so huge that scientists believe it could actually slow the Earth’s rotation if it ever blocked its maximum volume of water, making each day longer by 0.06 microseconds. How massive can £20.82 billion 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 could get your hands on about 123 fully loaded warcrafts that would do the trick. Great Wall of China; 116 billion pounds This may shock some, but no man-made structure in history is heavier than the Great Wall of China.
Being 13,000 miles long, it also makes it the longest wall in the world. Although you can’t actually see it from space, this wall has enough bragging rights to withstand the rest of civilization.
The largest animal in history is the blue whale, weighing 173 tons or 346,000 pounds, equivalent to the Great Wall of China; you would have to clone that particular Blue Whale 335,260 times.
Unfortunately, there are only about 25,000 (at best) blue whales left in the world today. Honorable Mentions Below is another set of objects that didn’t quite make our list of the heaviest things on Earth.
This massive aircraft is the largest commercial aircraft currently in production, with a maximum takeoff weight of around 975,000 pounds (442,253 kg).
The LHC weighs approximately 38,000 tons (83.7 million pounds), which is roughly the weight of your mom. ITER Tokamak (France) Currently under construction, the ITER Tokamak in France is a huge fusion reactor designed to replicate the process that powers the sun and other stars.
This massive machine weighs a whopping 23,000 tons (50.7 million pounds), roughly equivalent to 3,176 average-sized cars.
It is approximately 2,717 feet (828 m) tall, twice the height of the Eiffel Tower. The Burj Khalifa weighs approximately 500,000 tons (1.1 billion pounds), which is equivalent to the weight of about 100,000 elephants. perspective, this is equivalent to the weight of 6 USS Gerald R.
Ford aircraft carriers or 1818 blue whales. Statue of Unity (India): The Statue of Unity, a towering bronze effigy of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, an Indian statesman and respected champion of independence, is a testament to the sheer human capacity for monumental achievement. This imposing structure is an impressive 597 feet tall (equivalent to 182 meters) and weighs a whopping 1.6 billion pounds (approximately 730,000 kilograms), which is equivalent to the weight of 2,186 elephants! The statue is an engineering masterpiece consisting of 1,700 tons of bronze and 1,850 tons of bronze cladding, and was crafted by over 3,000 hardworking workers who worked tirelessly for 56 months to bring this wonder to life.
Without a doubt, the Statue of Unity is a true representation of human ingenuity and creativity. Conclusion: Some of the world’s most difficult structures are truly stunning, ranging from the Washington Monument to the SSCV Sleipnir crane ship. As mentioned above, we selected these facilities based on information from credible sources such as Guinness World Records and the National Institute of Standards and Technology. In addition to making sure to provide practical comparisons and quick facts, this list gives insight into the logistical and engineering feats required to create and move such massive objects.