Tel Aviv Residents Build World-Record Lego Tower to Honor Cancer Victim

LEGOs have seemingly become a modern form of artist expression, and a new world-record LEGO tower made in honor of a young cancer victim has been met with heartfelt reactions.

The massive LEGO tower was built by residents of Tel Aviv. It stands at 118 feet high and reportedly contains more then half-a-million LEGO bricks, according to the Deccan Chronicle. The whole thing reportedly too about two weeks to complete.

Built in honor of 8-year-old Lego fanatic Omer Sayag, and dubbed the “Omar Tower,” after the young boy, the tower was completed on Wednesday using cranes to add the final pieces.

“It was the idea of his (Sayag’s) former kindergarten teacher, and building blocks were donated by residents, companies and some were purchased using municipality funds,” a spokesperson for the Tel Aviv mayor’s office was quoted as saying.

In a post on Twitter, Galit Peleg, an Israeli Diplomat and Head of Public Diplomacy at the Consulate General of Israel in New York, tweeted out, “This morning in #TelAviv, #Israel, hundreds of volunteers built a #Lego tower 118ft tall, in memory of 9 years old Omer Sayag, who died of #Cancer & loved playing with Lego. Aiming to commemorate him as #GuinnessWorldRecords.”

After pictures of the tower appeared on Twitter, many people came out to share their support for Omar and the LEGO tower. One person said, “I cant tell you how much I love this,” while another gushed, “May his memory be a blessing and may Adonai comfort his family.”

The previous Guinness World Record for tallest LEGO tower belonged to residents of Milan, Italy, who built a 115ft structure in 2015. A Guinness representative was not immediately on hand to judge the “Omar Tower,” so the structure may still waiting to be confirmed as holding the official new world record.