Dubai, the city of........

[darkknight]

Dubai, the city of gold!!!

Dubai, from sand to silicon!!!

Dubai the city that cares!!!!

Dubai the city of millionnaires!!!!

Dubai, the city of Superlatives!!!!!

Here are some pics!!!!

The duty free...enter the city

The creek!!!!

Emirates Towers, Tallest in the Middle East and Europe!!!

The tallest residential tower in the world The 21st Century Tower

Jumeirah Beach Hotel!!!!

The Burj Al Arab, the only 7 star hotel in the world and the tallest hotel in the world!!!

The first phase of dubai marina, the worlds largest marina!!!

The largest man made island in the world, The Palm Jumeirah. Apart from the Great wall of China, The Jebal Ai Port in dubai, this is the only man made structure that can be seen with the naked eye from space!! Next to it is the marina!!

The grand dreams of dubai that are being realized,

The Palm Jumeirah-Constructed

The palm Jebal Ali- UC

The world islands-UC

Aerial photo of the palm jumeirah, the jebal ali port and the palm jebal ali which is UC

Dubai builds yet another worlds tallest hotel 380 meters, the Abbco Rotana Hotel!

I would post more pictures, but i am sleepy. Temme guys what do u think??

[Guest donaltopablo]

Wow, f'in awesome pics! I love what they are doing in Dubai, it is amazing.

[monsoon]

[darkknight]

The islands are mainly for tourism and housing. For example the housing developments in the palm jumeirah got sold out in 2 months. The whole of the Uk soccer team have bought houses there. Others include tiger woods who play in dubai year after year for the dubai desert classic, bill clinton, jay leno, michael shumacher who willl soon be racing at The Dubai autodrome!!!! Then there are about 50 hotels in each of these islands with malls that are to be seen to be believed. And yes these facilities with the water world which is another exhilarating diving experince in an artificial reef will be for the general public as well as for the tourists!!!

I have more news about this great city!!!!

Coming up..... Dubai Land, the worlds larget theme park...2wice the size of dysney land and 100x the size of monaco!!!!!

Hydropolis......The worlds first undersea hotel and resort!!!!!!

[Allan]

Wow. Dubai has lots of great buildings, and they are announcing new towers practically everyday! What an amazing place!

[darkknight]

The worlds Largest Entertainment Complex......2wice the size of DysneyLand and 100x the size of Monaco........almost the size of the present built up area of Dubai.......Ladies and Gentlemen i give you DUBAI LAND

Construction has already started!!!!

Dubai has launched one of the biggest construction projects in the world, the $5 billion Dubailand mixed-use theme park, a Middle East answer to Disneyland.

To be built on two billion square feet of land behind the Emirates Road stretching from the back of Emirates Hills down almost to The Creek, the theme park consists of 45 separate projects from a space exploration exhibition to full-size dinosaur enclosure.

Phase One with the core facilities will be completed within two years, while the progress of the rest of the project depends on the willingness of the private sector to participate in this immense project.

Announcing the project to the Dubai community Crown Prince General Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum sharply called on local businessmen not to keep their money in a bank account but to invest in Dubai.

Dubailand includes the biggest shopping mall in the world, The Mall of Arabia, several new five-star hotels including one built in sand dunes, an indoor ski-slope, a complex of sports stadiums, and an ecological dome to grow vegetation in the heart of the desert.

There will also be an equestrian centre, aviation display, modern art gallery, water amusement park, multi-cultural garden complex, the largest zoo in the Middle East, Pyramids and much more.

However, the most striking thing about Dubailand will be its immense scale. This is a huge area of land and the project will be almost as large as the present built-up area of Dubai.

Dubailand is designed to entertain and amuse the 15 million tourists a year Dubai intends to attract and will vastly add to the hospitality infrastructure of the emirate. This is to be nothing less than the leisure and entertainment hub of the Middle East, and a world-class tourism attraction similar to Disneyland in Florida.

Once again the vision of His Highness has stunned the Dubai business community. But this project has been two years in creation and there will be a spate of announcements about local and international groups' participation in Dubailand over the next few months.

For anyone who wondered what future guests staying in Dubai would do with their time, and how they would spend their money this is the answer. Dubailand is a bold vision of the modern Middle East and its own dynamic will be the key to its success.

[darkknight]

For more info about this please go to www.dubailand.info

For the old tv ad on dubai land follow this link

Squeeze me!!!!!!

[M. Brown]

WHAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!. THAT IS INCREDIBLE. Its the Shanghai of the Mid-East

[tocoto]

Very interesting photo tour. Dubai definitely has some great skyscraper architecture and interesting plans. The shots of the big freeways with surrounding highrises remind me of LA.

[Spartan]

Just a comment: Despite what some people say, the Great Wall of China cannot be seen from space.

Also, those are awsome pics. Thats a crazy enertainment complex that they are building.

[Allan]

An indoor ski slope? Just when I think I've heard of everything....

Dubai land land is one massive place. It looks like they didn't leave anything out.

[darkknight]

Actually the indoor skislope i think is in addition to the worlds largest ski dome which will have themed worlds and hotels inside it!!!!!!!!

Will post details abt it later!!!

[TheBASEtoweR]

Awesome city!!!!! it's really nice to see all these buildings, very beautiful design!

[monsoon]

[darkknight]

Ok!!! Heres the Dubai Skidome!!!!

AED 1 BILLION

[DavePaulk]

I'm waiting for Dubai to make claims on building "the world's tallest building". Is there any chance of that?

[DavePaulk]

Hahaha, i stand corrected. It has already been done. I must have somehow missed monsoon's post.

[wolfdawg54]

Dubai's growth is incredible! It seems like they are trying to be first in everything!

[darkknight]

i reckon they are doing a pretty good job!! Dont u think??? B)

[ShowMeKC]

this is meant as an honest and respectable question.

What will happen to Dubai and the rest of the ME once the USA and then the rest of the world goes to hydrogen powered cars and stuff?

[darkknight]

An honest question!

Well, first of all the UAE as a whole has oil!!! All that oil is concentrated in Abu Dhabi!!!! Abu Dhabi and Dubai are different states like Texas and New York!!! Abu dhabi does not help Dubai in anyway, but the capital of UAE is Abu Dhabi!!!

Only 7% of dubai's trade is through oil exports!!!! In the next 10 years its going to come down to 2%!! So all that dubai is doing now is based on trade!!! Pure trade!! Having the world's largest man made port and the second largest port overall, an amazing airport, and its strategic placement with respect to major cities like london, frankfurt etc, makes it a major trade hub!!!!! Dubai is trying hard and succeeding at it to develop its tourism industry!!!! Making a looot of money from that as well!!! So if the US decide to go on hydrogen fuelled cars, good on ya, but dubai wont be affected!!!

Another point is that, the UAE does not export to the US!! It exports to Japan , korea, china and other east asian countries!!!!

Cheers

[ShowMeKC]

ah ok. of course, it won't be till about 2020 till we go completely hydrogen.

[darkknight]

hehe

Cheers mate!!!

[DavePaulk]

The Sheik of Dubai is in this month's issue of Forbes magazine. It's a cool article; i'll see if i can find it.

[darkknight]

i guess i got to it 'fore u!!!

Here u go!!

read on.......

Dubai is a place where the act of moving around sand dunes always involves billions of dollars. You might recognize the sail-shaped $1 billion Burj Al Arab superluxury hotel jutting into the Persian Gulf. Perhaps you haven't heard of the $3 billion construction of two islands in the shape of palm trees. Or the 480,000-square-foot hole for a new $4.1 billion airport terminal. That's in front of the site for Dubailand, an improbable $5 billion Disneyesque project comprising indoor snow skiing, an animal safari and amusement rides--but not a single mosque.

The guy driving all this construction is a bit of an oddity himself. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, 54, who rules this tiny city-state (roughly the size of Rhode Island), is Dubai's de facto Muslim leader, but he has a distinctly capitalist tilt. Thanks to his restless enterprise, Dubai's nominal GDP has exploded from $8 billion to $20 billion in the last decade. That wealth does not derive from oil, which represents only 8.5% of output; nearly two-thirds comes from trade, tourism, real estate, construction and financial services.

Dubai is a place of intriguing contrasts. Fewer than 15% of its 1 million residents are nationals; most of its immigrants hail from Pakistan, India, Iran, Egypt and other Arab nations. Women in black burkas revealing only their eyes stroll on Sheikh Zayed Road past a line of sequined halter tops waiting to get into the smoky Zinc nightclub, where booze is served. While muezzins call the faithful to prayer, you can hear bells ringing at the Catholic church. Tourists with Israeli stamps in their passports breeze through customs. "We want to be the one place in the world which offers the best option for everything--business opportunities, world-class sporting and entertainment events," says Mohammed.

It's not quite the business mecca it pretends to be, not yet, anyway. Technically, foreigners can't own land in Dubai--or anywhere in the United Arab Emirates, a federation of seven sheikhdoms on the Arabian peninsula. But the tax-free advantages to trading companies are an irresistible draw for more than 1,500 companies from 80 nations. A fledgling stock exchange lists 16 companies (market cap: $15.4 billion, versus $14.7 trillion for the NYSE) that trade for two hours a day. The economy remains opaque because there's little distinction between government fisc and private treasure of the sheikh and his three brothers, estimated at $10 billion.

The sources of that wealth are a little fuzzy. Mohammed gets $2 billion a year in income from assets accumulated by his father, Sheikh Rashid. Then there's an estimated $2.5 billion a year, a subsidy from the UAE to the ambitious autocrat and his family. In addition, Mohammed controls luxury hotels, banks and at least six beachfront palaces, not to mention a stable of 1,200 Arabian racehorses. (Dubai's Nad al Sheba Racecourse hosts the Dubai World Cup series, the richest equine event in the world, with purses totaling $16 million.)

Think of Dubai as a corporation and Mohammed its chief executive--without a board of directors getting in his way. He can increase the value of land simply by building, say, a marble-clad hotel on a portion of it. The airline he launched delivers tourists who stay at his hotels and buy goods sent through his ports. To keep things humming, he funnels cash to his friends in the form of highway and hospital contracts. "Under Sheikh Mohammed," says Khalaf Al Habtoor, a billionaire construction magnate whose firm helped build hotels, hospitals and airport facilities, "anything is possible."

Anything except failure. In 2000 the sheikh's friends Abdullah and Majid Al Futtaim couldn't agree on who should run their $1 billion-plus auto-trading and real estate business, which includes exclusive selling rights for Toyota, Jeep, Volvo and Chrysler, as well as a 1-million-square-foot shopping mall. Squabbling might have driven both ventures into the ground. Mohammed ordered each sib to bid on the assets, highest number takes all. "His Highness never wants to see anyone go bankrupt in Dubai," says a banker who represents the superrich there.

Cheers