‘World’s first skyscraper’ may be a 2,800-year-old Ethiopian palace

An ancient palace in Ethiopia may well have been the world’s first ‘skyscraper’ (Picture: artefacts-berlin.de/Heritage/Cover Images)

The world’s first skyscraper may have existed far earlier than previously thought.

An ancient palace in Ethiopia, constructed some 2,800 years ago, could have been as tall as 16 storeys, according to a new study.

The Grat Be’al Gibri at Yeha, from around 800 BC, would therefore have been taller than Chicago’s Home Insurance Building, which was built in 1885 and commonly considered the world’s first skyscraper.

Researchers hav...