The first “skyscrapers” were built in Egypt about 4500 years ago. 20,000 people worked on what was then the largest construction site in the world and created the only ancient wonder of the world that still exists today: the pyramids of Giza.
The history of the buildings is also the history of their builders, who were often declared insane, but triumphed eventually. It was ingenious inventions that made the race to heaven possible. How did a French gardener get the idea of mixing steel and concrete? And why did Eiffel give his tower this peculiar shape? How did the building material get to an altitude of 800 metres? Superstructures like the pyramids, the Eiffel Tower or the oversized skyscrapers on the Arabian Peninsula could only come into being and become icons because of people who were ahead of their time.
WRITER & DIRECTOR: Christina Trebbi CAMERA: Jörg Adams, Jens Boeck, Torbjörn Karvang EDITOR: Ramin Sabeti, Igor Garbuzenko MUSIC: Hans Günter Wagener COMMISSIONING EDITOR: Alexander Hesse (ZDF), Katharina Rau (ZDF)
