The World’s Largest Hotel Is Turning 30 (And May Finally Open)

The world’s largest hotel is turning 30 next year, and it looks like it may finally open…after 30 years of construction.

North Korea’s apparently turned on the lights at Ryugyong Hotel, fueling rumors that the regime is ready to revive the 3,000-room hotel.

NK News reports that developers from Egyptian-owned Orascom were recently flown into Pyongyang to discuss the progress of the property.

The 30-year-old “hotel of doom” has been a magnificent disaster by nearly all accounts. Work on the 105-story building began in 1987, during the reign of Kim Il-Sung, with the hopes of stimulating the country’s tourism industry.

Construction on the beast cost a reported $600 million, roughly 2 percent of the country’s GDP, but was abandoned five years later after the collapse of the Soviet Union, which caused North Korea to spiral deeper into poverty.

After years in disrepair, with crooked elevator shafts and weak concrete, the EU Chamber of Commerce concluded the hotel was irreparable.

Now, that doesn’t seem to be the case, and, with the hotel’s 30th birthday coming up, there seems to be hope the “hotel of doom” may be able to relinquish that title.

Tom is a travel writer, part-time hitchhiker, and he’s currently trying to imitate Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? but with more sunscreen and jorts.