Tajikistan hopes to build the world's tallest flagpole, British Guardian wrote.
Its Pamir mountains are known as the "roof of the world" but Tajikistan now wants to scale new heights - by building the world's tallest flagpole.
Emomali Rahmon, president of the republic, attended an opening ceremony in the centre of the capital, Dushanbe, today as construction began on a base for the 165-metre staff - more than half the size of the Eiffel Tower.
The pole will hoist a 30 by 60-metre flag outside the Palace of Nations and reach just higher than the current world record holder in Azerbaijan, which tops off at 162 metres. That flagpole was only confirmed as the tallest by the Guinness Book of Records in May.
Building "monumental" flagpoles and hoisting flags to the top is a feat of engineering. In 2001 the world's highest unsupported flagpole, in Vancouver, Canada, was only 86 metres high, but its successors have almost doubled in size over the last decade.
The Tajik flagpole will be erected by the San Diego-based company, Trident Support, which has broken successive records in the Middle East. The Tajik poles are made from 12-metre sections of steel tube fitted together by crane, and could potentially reach 200 metres. Beyond that, helicopters would be needed to slot the upper sections into place.