In today’s article, we’re going to dive into the world of the heaviest things on Earth, the most powerful, and the most breathtaking of all man-made objects.
With everything from massive buildings to colossal machines, I’ve done my homework and rounded up the 10 heaviest objects in the world, all listed in multiple categories.
These items are sure to blow your mind (and break your scales). Of course, I didn’t put things weighing billions of pounds on my scale.
That’s why I’ve made sure to provide some very handy comparisons and quick facts to help you better grasp the weight of each item. Top 10 Heaviest Objects in the World Before going into the details of each object, it should be noted that due to the logistical difficulty of measuring the weight and mass of such objects, their weight totals are estimates. from the data available at the time of making this list.
So, without further ado, let’s start with the lightest item on our list. Washington Monument (Washington, DC); £162.2 million The Washington Monument is an impressive stone structure located on the National Mall in Washington, DC, and attracts over 500,000 visitors each year. It measures 555 feet (169 meters) and weighs 90,854 tons (82,506 metric tons).
Despite its massive 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 United States.
To put its weight into perspective, 162.2 million pounds is the equivalent of 12,135 African elephants! Additionally, the Washington Monument is made of more than 30,000 blocks of granite.
You could build 30 average sized houses with just one of these blocks! Submerged communications cable (under the oceans); £176.4 million Oh mate!
And the heaviest of them all weighs 176.4 million pounds! Think of £176.4m another way.
The largest animal in history is a blue whale, weighing 199 tons (or 438,719.5 pounds). To match the heaviest submerged communications cable would require approximately 510 blue whales.
Yes, that’s almost 3% of all remaining blue whales in the world. Another interesting aspect is that these cables can be thousands and thousands of miles long, even longer than the distance between New York and Australia! For example, in 2017, AT&T operated nearly 90 submarine cable systems, spanning more than 438,000 miles in total, which overall would be enough to circumnavigate the Earth’s equator more of 17 times. The Freight Train (Western Australia); £199.5million Next on our list is a 20-year-old freight train in Western Australia.
To be the heaviest freight train of all time as well as the longest at 4.5 miles long and 199.5 million pounds. To put that weight into perspective.
The General Sherman tree, also known as the giant sequoia, is by far the heaviest living thing in Earth’s history and the largest living organism (by volume) on the planet. These almost unimaginably tall redwoods can reach 311 feet tall and weigh up to 6,000 tons or 12 million pounds.
Even still, you would need about 16 and a half giant redwoods to match the weight of this extra large freight train. Nimitz-class aircraft carriers (various); 204 million pounds The Nimitz-class aircraft carriers are the largest Warcrafts ever built.
And you can bet that this colossal mass contained entire airports at once. Let’s look at 204 million pounds from a different angle.
According to a University of Idaho study, the average NFL player weighs 245.86 pounds. Representing 32 teams with 53 players on each roster, that’s 1,696 players winning the grand total of 416,978 pounds.
You would need 489 National Football League players to equal the weight of a single Nimitz carrier. The crane ship SSCV Sleipnir; 602 million poundsThe SSCV Sleipnir crane weighs 273,000 tons (fully loaded)!
This ship is an engineering marvel, and it’s amazing to think how much weight it can lift and move with ease. The Sleipnir is truly a beast of the sea, with two rotating cranes, each capable of lifting 10,000 tons!
It’s no wonder this vessel is the largest crane vessel in the world, with its eight columns and streamlined pontoons designed to reduce drag and provide calmer motions in higher sea conditions. So what exactly is 273 tons?
Well, the Sleipnir makes the Titanic look like a bath toy. The Titanic weighed around 52,000 metric tons, less than a fifth of the weight of the Sleipnir.
In the 1980s, Nicolae Ceausescu ordered the construction of the palace. However, he never witnessed the project’s completion as the citizen uprising saw it executed in 1989, five years before the palace was completed. The Palace of Parliament is the heaviest building on Earth at a ridiculous price. 1.6 billion pounds.
It is also the second largest administrative building in the world after the Pentagon.Gullfaks C Oil Storage Facility (North Sea); 3 billion pounds First installed 4 November 1989 and pumped out a year later.
The Gullfaks C oil storage facility stationed in the North Sea around Norway is the heaviest man-made mobile object in history. This gigantic 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, Gullfaks C and the famous Statue of Liberty are both considered massive man-made objects that would make you “woah” when you see them. However, you would need around 6,000 Status of Liberty clones to match the weight of Gullfaks C. Great Pyramid of Cheops (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 this place), it remains the largest of the pyramids in Egypt and the oldest of the seven wonders of the world. It comprises 2.3 million blocks of stone, each weighing about two and a half tons.
Do the math, and it’s a whopping 12 billion pounds (or 5,750,000 tonnes).
Imagine it this way: this thing is so massive it makes Godzilla look like a little gecko. What better way to compare Khufu’s Pyramid Suite with that of another wonder of the world, the Eiffel Tower?
This iconic structure may not be as old as the Khufu Pyramid, but it’s still a heavyweight champion in its own right. However, when it comes to weight, it’s like comparing a feather to a bowling ball.
In fact, it would take around 600 Eiffel towers to equal the weight of the Cheops pyramid.
That’s a lot of metal! Three Gorges Dam (China); 20.8 billion pounds Besides being a true engineering marvel, China’s Three Gorges Dam is also the second-heaviest man-made object on Earth, weighing an astonishing 20.82 billion pounds (or 10. 42 million tons). In terms of installed capacity, it is the largest in the world. power plant, generating more than 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. In fact, this dam is so huge that scientists think it could actually slow the Earth’s rotation if it ever blocked its maximum amount of water, extending each day by 0.06 microseconds. What could be the mass of 20.82 billion pounds?
Well, the largest known elephant in history was a 24,000 pound bull elephant from Angola.
To match the mass of the Three Gorges Dam would require 867,500 Angolan giant elephants. Also remember the Nimitz-class aircraft carriers we talked about earlier?
If you could get your hands on about 123 fully loaded warcraft, that would do. The great Wall of China; 116 billion pounds It might shock some, but no man-made object in history is heavier than the Great Wall of China.
Its length of 13,000 miles also makes it the longest wall in the world. Although you can’t see it from space, this wall has enough bragging rights to last the rest of civilization.
The largest animal in history is a blue whale, clocked in at 173 tons or 346,000 pounds to match the Great Wall of China; you would have to clone that particular blue whale 335,260 times.
Sadly, there are only around 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 approximately 975,000 pounds (442,253 kg).
And it can carry up to 660 passengers – it’s like a small village traveling through the air.
The LHC weighs around 38,000 tonnes (83.7 million pounds), roughly the same as yo mama. 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 23,000 tons (50.7 million pounds), roughly equivalent to 3,176 mid-size cars.
Standing at a height of approximately 2,717 feet (828 m), it is more than twice as tall as the Eiffel Tower. Burj Khalifa weighs around 500,000 tonnes (1.1 billion pounds), which is equivalent to the weight of around 100,000 elephants. point of view, this 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 revered champion of independence, testifies to the human ability to achieve monumental works. achievement. This imposing structure is 597 feet tall (equivalent to 182 meters) and weighs 1.6 billion pounds (about 730,000 kilograms), an amount equivalent to the weight of 2,186 elephants! The statue is a masterpiece of engineering, comprising 1,700 tons of bronze and 1,850 tons of bronze cladding, and was crafted by over 3,000 diligent workers who labored for 56 grueling months to bring it to life. this wonder.
Without a doubt, the Statue of Unity is a true representation of human ingenuity and creativity. We have selected these objects based on information from credible sources such as the Guinness World Records and the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Also guaranteed to provide handy comparisons and brief facts, this list provides insight into the logistical and technical feats required to create and move such massive objects.