Dubai City: Luxurious, Exotic and Enchanting Destination
Dubai was an unknown word for most people living in the Western hemisphere, just a few years ago. These days, Dubai is an important touristic destination; its biggest attractions are the mystery and seduction of an exotic destination, and a collection of amazing, beautiful and innovative buildings and structures.
Dubai is located at the eastern Arabian Peninsula; it's one of the seven emirates that constitute the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Dubai is also the name of the main city of the emirate; sometimes the city is called "Dubai City", for disambiguation purposes.
Dubai City is not what you would expect from and Arabian city. Surrounded by desert, Dubai City takes advantage of its location, in the coast of the Persian Gulf. It presents a unique, intriguing combination of enchanting landscapes: the golden, sandy desert surrounds a modern sky-line, which presents some of the most creative buildings of the world; all of it highlighted by the deep blue sea.
Some of the most famous Dubai's buildings:
Burj Al-Arab
The world's tallest hotel. Built upon an artificial island, located 280mts off the shore, this luxurious hotel resembles the sail of a dhow (a lateen-rigged sailing vessel). Two of the Burj al-Arab's most interesting features are the helipad - suspended 211 meters high, near the top of the tower - and the atrium, which reaches a height of 180 meters.
The Burj al-Arab is also famous because of its self-granted title of "the only 7 stars hotel in the world".
The Palm Islands
Another bold initiative of Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, intended to attract more tourists to Dubai. The Palm Islands are three large artificial islands, shaped as palm trees.
Only one of them is already finished and open for development, "The Palm Jumeirah". "The Palm Jebel Ali" is expected to be completed next year, and "The Palm Deira" is scheduled to be finished in 2015. "The Palm Deira" will become the largest of the three Palm Islands.
An interesting fact about "The Palm Jebel Ali" is that its fronds will be circled by boardwalks, which will spell out a famous Arabic poem:
Take wisdom from the wise
It takes a man of vision to write on water
Not everyone who rides a horse is a jockey
Great men rise to greater challenges
The World - Archipelago
The World (also known as The Globe Islands) is an artificial archipelago, located near The Palm Islands. Currently under construction, the archipelago will contain 300 islands, distributed in a world map configuration.
Initially, the project was presented with fewer island (one for each continent) but later it was broke into smaller islands to reduce individual island's price and increase sales. As today, 94% of the islands have been reclaimed, while 45% have been sold.
