SortStack #200 — 2026-12-26

By duration · Order from shortest to longest.

The elevator ride up the Burj Khalifa's observation deck 1 min

The lifts climb at around 10 metres per second. Your ears pop on the way to the 124th floor — the building is so tall it has distinct climate zones.
The Titanic's sinking, from iceberg to going under 2.7 h

The ship's band famously kept playing on deck for most of it — and the iceberg itself had likely calved from a Greenland glacier years earlier.
Munich's Oktoberfest 17 days

Despite the name, most of it happens in September — and visitors drink roughly six to seven million litres of beer before it ends.
An African elephant's pregnancy 1.8 years

The longest gestation of any land mammal produces a 100 kg calf that can walk within hours — and is looked after by the whole herd.
The construction of the Sydney Opera House 14 years

Planned as a four-year, $7 million project, it took fourteen years and $102 million — and its architect left Australia before it opened, never returning.
The time since humans invented the wheel 5.5K years

Potter's wheels came before wheels for transport — and the oldest wooden wheel ever found, near Ljubljana, is about 5,150 years old.