Helicopter tour Dubai downtown skyline

Helicopter tour Dubai downtown skyline

Helicopter tour Palm Jumeirah

The rotors begin as a low murmur and rise to a bright, insistent thrum that settles in the chest. There's the smell of warm tarmac and aviation fuel, the clipped gestures of the ground crew, the click of the headset sealing the world away. Then a light, improbable lift: the city drops a few inches and keeps falling. Within seconds the helicopter is slicing a clean line through the warming morning air, and the horizon, which always seemed politely distant from the street, leans in like a curious face.

Dubai's downtown skyline appears not as a single thing but as a layered promise.

Private helicopter charter Dubai

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From above, it is both geometry and gesture-a diagram of ambition drawn in steel and glass. The Burj Khalifa punctuates the city like an exclamation point, its tapering sides catching and releasing the sun. Even people who have stared up at it from the plaza will be unprepared for the way it organizes the air around it from this height. It throws a narrow shadow that finds the lake of the Dubai Fountain and threads its way across the low-slung courtyards of Old Town. The tower looks less like a building and more like a compass needle aligning invisible forces.

The pilot's voice crackles in the headset, casual and authoritative. “Downtown to the left,” as if it could be anywhere else. The Burj Lake winks turquoise, a coin tossed into the palm of the city. The Dubai Mall, impossible to comprehend on foot, finally makes sense from here-a small province under one roof. Closer to the water, the Dubai Opera sits like a ship ready to lift from its berth and sail across the plaza, a cultural vessel moored in a harbor of commerce. The Address towers stand like careful bookmarks in a story written at impossible scale. Helicopter tour Dubai city panorama If the streets below sometimes feel theatrical, the helicopter reveals the stagecraft: sweeping boulevards, carefully curved promenades, the careful placement of shade and shine.

And then there are the lines. Sheikh Zayed Road lays out a stern, purposeful spine, lanes streaming like threads pulled taut toward the desert's interior. Interchanges become elaborate calligraphy. From above, Dubai's car culture looks less frenetic, more choreographed, as if the roads themselves are making sense of the city's velocity. The Business Bay canal, just south of Downtown, writes a sinuous S across office towers that gleam like a row of new coins. Helicopter tour Palm Jumeirah It is easy to read the city as a story of water: the Gulf's bright edge, the manmade lake, the canal that insists on a curve amid the grids. In a place that knows heat intimately, every patch of blue is statement and reprieve.

What surprises most is not the height, but the proximity. You can see the repetition on the tower facades, the way balconies echo like piano keys. You notice rooftop gardens that elude street-level eyes, delicate patches of green that feel private even from the sky. There is a children's pool shaped like a jewel, an empty tennis court waiting for dusk, a laundry line someone forgot to bring in. Even here, the city betrays smallness: the human scale persists in tiny gestures against the monumental.

On certain mornings, the desert light arrives like a soft argument. It diffuses through the air, polite and pale at first, then sharpens. The glass of Downtown moves from pearl to blade. If you're lucky enough to fly near sunset, the tilt is different. Everything warms, the towers become bronze reeds, and the Burj's mirrored skin stops reflecting and begins to glow from within. The fountain wakes in timed astonishments, white arcs flung into copper light. If night falls before you land, the roads become necklaces you could almost lift by the clasp, while the buildings transform into lanterns in a city that has learned to make its own stars.

There is always a moment, head pressed against the window, when the city becomes a map. Not the navigational kind with legend and scale, but a map of intentions. The master-planned order of Downtown, which can seem overly precise when you're waiting for a rideshare on the Boulevard, makes a different kind of sense from above. You see the conversation between density and relief, between spectacle and utility. The green pockets are not many, but they are placed where eyes and feet want to rest. The towers cluster and then release into plazas that catch wind and people and sound. The skyline is not a random forest, but a composition-an orchestra with a clear first violin.

Dubai's reputation often precedes it: the superlative city of tallest and largest, where the new is a kind of faith. The helicopter throws those clichés into motion and reveals complicating truths. It shows the edges where development gives way to emptier sand, the transitional zones still hearing the metronome of cranes. It shows older quarters near the Creek-the low roofs, the intricate lanes-holding their own kind of gravity. The juxtaposition is startling: a minaret tucked into shadow a few neighborhoods away from a tower whose observation deck hosts proposals and anniversaries. From above, these contrasts are not conflicts, but chords.

There's a tactile suspense to the flight itself. The helicopter banks, and the skyline tilts, and for a second you swear you could reach out and press a finger to the Burj's flank to steady it. The headset reduces the city's roar to a hush, and in that hush you start to register smaller details: the whorl of traffic in a roundabout shaped like a flower, the crisp borders of building shadows, a billboard caught mid-wink, a rooftop helipad that functions as a promise more than a necessity. The pilot points toward the Gulf and you catch the blade of the Burj Al Arab, the scalloped geometry of the Palm, as if Downtown were one bright chapter in a bigger, restless book.

And yet, despite the spectacle, the most enduring sensation is intimacy. On the ground, Downtown can feel like a place that performs for you. In the air, it confides. It shows you its back-of-house, its alignments, the way its parts negotiate with heat and light and traffic and human desire. It admits how much of it is choreography and how much is compromise. It reveals the care and the calculation. It tells you plainly: this is what it took to put a lake here, to bend a road there, to lift a needle of steel to the point where it pricks the sky.

When the helicopter finally descends, there's a brief reluctance, a wish to stay in the clean geometry a little longer. Dubai helicopter private flight The skid kisses the ground, the engine winds down, and the world floods back in: heat, voices, the impatient rhythm of a day. Helicopter tour Dubai Dubai Marina views You unclip the headset and find you're carrying something you didn't have before-a map that is not in your pocket but behind your eyes. If walking Downtown makes you feel small but dazzled, flying over it makes you feel included in its scale, complicit in its ambition. Helicopter tour Dubai panoramic ride . The skyline is no longer a distant outline or a set of icons; it is a living diagram you've traced with your body, a place that makes more sense because, for a while, you learned to see it the way birds and builders do.

A helicopter tour over Dubai's downtown skyline doesn't reduce the city to a postcard. It enlarges it. It reveals that a skyline is not just a silhouette against the sky, but a ledger of choices, a field of forces, a conversation between what a city dreams and what it can hold. And for a few quiet, roaring minutes, you are inside that conversation, looking down at a future that has decided to be visible.

 

Dubai Creek
خُوْر دُبَيّ
Abras on the creek
Details
Location Dubai,  United Arab Emirates
Coordinates 25°15′21″N 55°19′0″E / 25.25583°N 55.31667°E / 25.25583; 55.31667
Length Total 24 kilometres (15 mi) of which natural length is 14 kilometres (8.7 mi)
North end Al Shindagha
South end Beach of Jumeirah

Dubai Creek (Arabic: خُوْر دُبَيّ, romanized: Khūr Dubayy) is a natural saltwater creek in Dubai. It extends about 9 miles (14 km) inwards and forms a natural port that has traditionally been used for trade and transport.[1] The creek ranges from 200 to 1,200 metres (660 to 3,940 ft) in width while the average depth is about 6.5 to 7 metres (21 to 23 ft). Previously, it extended to Ras Al Khor Wildlife Sanctuary but as part of the new Business Bay Canal and Dubai Canal, it extends a further 13 km (8.1 mi)[2] to the Persian Gulf.[3]

In the 1950s, extensive development of the creek began, including dredging and construction of breakwaters. A number of bridges allow movement of vehicles across the creek while abras are used as taxis. The banks and route alongside the creek houses notable government, business and residential areas. A number of tourist locations and hotels are situated along the creek. The Dubai Creek, a vital waterway in the heart of the city, plays a significant role in Dubai's growth by handling the passage of more than 13,000 ships annually. As a major artery for maritime trade, it supports the city's commercial operations. Enhancements to the Creek's infrastructure are being made through a project aimed at improving safety and security measures for maritime traffic and commercial activities. These improvements are expected to strengthen the city's role as a regional hub for trade and ensure smoother, more secure operations for the numerous ships passing through each year.[4]

History

[edit]
The creek in 1964
The creek in 2007

Historically, the creek divided the city into two main sections – Deira and Bur Dubai. It was along the Bur Dubai creek area that members of the Bani Yas tribe first settled in the 19th century, establishing the Al Maktoum dynasty in the city.[5] In the early 20th century, the creek, though incapable then of supporting large scale transportation, served as a minor port for dhows coming from as far away as India or East Africa. Although it impeded the entry of ships due to current flow, the creek remained an important element in establishing the commercial position of Dubai, being the only port or harbour in the city.[6] Dubai's pearling industry, which formed the main sector of the city's economy, was based primarily on expeditions in the creek, prior to the invention of cultured pearls in the 1930s. Fishing, also an important industry at the time, was also based along the creek, whose warm and shallow waters supported a wide variety of marine life. Dhows used for purposes of fishing were also built on the foreshore of the creek.[7]

The importance of the creek as a site of commercial activity was a justification to introduce improvements to allow larger vessels to transit, as well as to facilitate loading and unloading activities. This led, in 1955, to a plan to develop the creek, which involved dredging shallow areas, building of breakwaters, and developing its beach to become a quay suitable for loading and unloading of cargo.[8] The creek was first dredged in 1961 to permit 7-foot (2.1 m) draft vessels to cross through the creek at all times.[9] The creek was dredged again in the 1960s and 1970s so that it could offer anchorage for local and coastal shipping of up to about 500 tons.[10] The dredging opened up the creek to much more continuous traffic of merchandise, including the development of re-export, and gave Dubai an advantage over Sharjah, the other dominant trading centre in the region at the time.[10]

Al Maktoum Bridge, the first bridge connecting Bur Dubai and Deira was constructed in 1963. Although the importance of the creek as a port has diminished with the development of the Jebel Ali Port, smaller facilities, such as Port Saeed, continue to exist along the creek, providing porting to traders from the region and the subcontinent.

2000s

[edit]
NBD headquarters along the Dubai Creek

In September 2007, a Dhs. 484 million (US$ 132 million) extension of the creek was finished, which now ends just south of the Metropolitan Hotel and projects on Shaikh Zayed Road. A final 2.2-kilometre extension, called the Dubai Water Canal was inaugurated 9 November 2016, crossing Shaikh Zayed Road in a northerly route, passing through Safa Park and then through Jumeirah 2. The channel is expected to continue through Jumeirah Beach Park where it will reach the shores of the Persian Gulf.[11] The extension is part of the Dubai's Business Bay development. Additionally, a new project consisting of seven islands known as Dubai Creek Harbour was proposed to be built on Dubai Creek. The centerpiece of this project would be the Dubai Creek Tower, which is set to become the tallest building in the world. Three additional bridges are being planned for Dubai Creek, which are the Seventh Crossing, the Al Shindagha Bridge, and the Fifth Bridge.[12][13]

The Dubai Festival City Mall on Dubai Creek opened in 2007. Mohammed Bin Rashid Library is being built in the Al Jaddaf area on the Creek. Dhows are constructed in this area too on the bankside. The Green Line of the Dubai Metro terminates at the Dubai Creek metro station. Close to this metro station is the Al Jaddaf Marine Station, operating ferries on the Creek, including across the Creek to the Dubai Festival City Mall.

The Dubai Creek Harbour development is set to launch in 2025, home to Dubai Creek Tower, with residential units and parks constructed.[14]

Route

[edit]

Original

[edit]

The creek's initial inlet into mainland Dubai is along the areas of Deira Corniche and Al Ras in eastern Dubai and along the area of Al Shindagha in western Dubai. It then progresses south-eastward through the mainland, passing through Port Saeed and Dubai Creek Park. The creek's natural ending is at the Ras Al Khor Wildlife Sanctuary, 14 kilometres (8.7 mi) from its origin at the Persian Gulf. The traditional form of transport between the eastern and western sections of Dubai via the creek was through abras, which continue to operate in Dubai. In addition, the eastern and western sections are linked via four bridges (Al Maktoum Bridge, Al Garhoud Bridge, Business Bay Crossing, and Floating Bridge) and one tunnel (Al Shindagha Tunnel).

Extensions

[edit]
Image of part of the creek extension captured from near the south end (at

25°16′02″N 55°18′24″E / 25.267236°N 55.306675°E / 25.267236; 55.306675)

The creek has been extended by 13 km (8.1 mi) through Business Bay, Dubai Canal and through Jumeirah into the Arabian Gulf.

 

Landmarks

[edit]
Map
Buildings and structures along Dubai creek. Hover and click on the map and then on the points for details.

Including the most remarkable buildings alongside the Deira side of the Creek are the Deira Twin Towers, the old Dubai Creek Tower, Sheraton Dubai Creek, National Bank of Dubai, and Chamber of Commerce.[15] On the other side of Al Maktoum Bridge along Dubai Creek is Dubai Creek Park, one of the largest parks in Dubai.[16]

The creek is also home to the Dubai Creek Golf & Yacht Club, comprising an 18-hole tournament golf course, clubhouses, residential development, and the Park Hyatt hotel.

Crossings

[edit]
Present crossings, in order from northwest to southeast
  • Al Shindagha Tunnel
  • Al Maktoum Bridge
  • Floating Bridge (temporary; to be replaced by the "Dubai Smile" in the future)
  • Al Garhoud Bridge
  • Business Bay Crossing
  • Infinity Bridge
Future/planned crossings
  • Dubai Smile (to replace the Floating Bridge)
  • Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Crossing (to link Al Jaddaf and Bur Dubai)

Ports and marinas

[edit]
Port Saeed
Abra station in Deira
  • Port Saeed
  • Dubai Creek Harbour
  • Al Jaddaf Marine Station
  • Business Bay Marina

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Gupte 2011, p. 76.
  2. ^ Hammad 2019, p. 101–102.
  3. ^ Karanam, Sankarbabu; Juma, Ibrahim Mohammad; AlHarmoudi, Alya Abdulrahim; Yang, Zongyan (30 December 2018). "Hydrodynamics of Extended Dubai Creek System". Coastal Engineering Proceedings (36). Proceedings of 36th Conference on Coastal Engineering, Baltimore, Maryland, 2018: 25. doi:10.9753/icce.v36.currents.25 (inactive 12 July 2025). S2CID 188648755. Retrieved 10 October 2021.cite journal: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of July 2025 (link)
  4. ^ Abdulla, Nasreen. "Dubai announces Dh112 million Creek restoration project to prevent potential flooding". Khaleej Times. Retrieved 23 October 2024.
  5. ^ Dubai. T. Carter, L Dunston. Lonely Planet. 2006
  6. ^ Doing Business with the United Arab Emirates. Terterov, Marat. GMB Publishing Ltd. 2006
  7. ^ "Dubai - Modern History" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 October 2011. (47.0 KB). Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing. Government of Dubai
  8. ^ Doing Business with the United Arab Emirates. Terterov, Marat. GMB Publishing Ltd. 2006
  9. ^ Ruling Shaikhs and Her Majesty's Government, 1960-1969. Joyce, Miriam. Routledge. 2003
  10. ^ a b Negotiating Change: The New Politics of the Middle East. Jones, Jeremy. IB Tauris. 2007
  11. ^ Derek Baldwin (27 September 2007). "Dubai Creek: It Just Got Longer". XPRESS.
  12. ^ Ahmed, Ashfaq (6 November 2009). "Floating Bridge will stay till 2014". Gulf News.
  13. ^ "Dubai Traffic, Architecture & Creek Bridges". ciio.unab.edu.co. Archived from the original on 23 February 2014. Retrieved 23 February 2014.
  14. ^ P, Devadasan K. (1 August 2025). "Dubai Creek in the 1950s: A glimpse into global city's humble beginnings". Gulf News: Latest UAE news, Dubai news, Business, travel news, Dubai Gold rate, prayer time, cinema. Retrieved 1 August 2025.
  15. ^ Dubai Creek Gigapixel Archived 16 April 2009 at the Wayback Machine. Highly detailed view of the Creek on a length of 3 km from Al Sabkha Rd to Chamber of Commerce.
  16. ^ "Dubai Creek Park", capturedubai.com, 29 March 2015. Retrieved on 30 March 2015.
Bibliography
  • Hammad, Ahmed (June 2019). "Business Bay – Dubai Creek Extension -Construction Management, Challenges and Results. Part II – Project Details" (PDF). Journal of Engineering and Architecture. 7 (1): 100–109. doi:10.15640/jea.v7n1a11 (inactive 12 July 2025). eISSN 2334-2994. ISSN 2334-2986. S2CID 191180349. Archived from the original on 6 March 2020.cite journal: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of July 2025 (link)
  • Gupte, Pranay (2011). Dubai: The Making of a Megapolis. Viking. Penguin Books India. ISBN 9780670085170.

Further reading

[edit]
  • Ahmad Makia (April 2015) "Dubai Creek as an Island City-State: Free Zones, Canals, and City Doppelgängers." Avery Review:7

Dubai Creek Harbour== External links ==

 

Jumeirah
جُمَيْرَا
Community
Jumeirah Fishing Harbour
Jumeirah Fishing Harbour
Map
Interactive map of Jumeirah
Coordinates: 25°12′07″N 55°14′38″E / 25.202°N 55.244°E / 25.202; 55.244
Country  United Arab Emirates
Emirate Emirate of Dubai
City Dubai
Boroughs
List
  • Jumeirah 1
  • Jumeirah 2
  • Jumeirah 3
Area
 
 • Total
6.9 km2 (2.7 sq mi)
Population
 (2024)[1]
 • Total
47,319
 • Density 6,900/km2 (18,000/sq mi)

Jumeirah (Arabic: جُمَيْرَا, romanized: Jumayrā Emirati pronunciation: [dʒʊˈmeːrɐ]) is a coastal residential area of Dubai, United Arab Emirates mainly comprising low rise private dwellings and hotel developments. It has both large expensive detached properties and more modest town houses built in a variety of architectural styles. The area is popular with expatriates working in Dubai and is familiar to many visiting tourists.

History

[edit]
Majlis Ghorfat Umm Al Sheif (مَجْلِس غُرْفَة أُمّ ٱلشَّيْف)

Archaeological excavations at Jumeirah Archaeological Site,[2][3][4] which was discovered in 1969, demonstrate that the area was inhabited as far back as the Abbasid era, approximately in the 10th century CE. Measuring about 80,000 m2 (860,000 sq ft), the site lay along a caravan route linking India and China to Oman and Iraq.[2][3][4]

Historically, Emirati people living in Jumeirah were fishermen, pearl divers and traders. At the turn of the 20th century, it was a village of some 45 areesh (palm leaf) huts, inhabited mainly by settled Bedouin of the Bani Yas and Manasir tribes. At the time, Jumeirah was 'about 3 miles southwest of Dibai town'.[5]

In modern times (1960 onwards), Jumeirah was the principal area for western expatriate residences. The beachfront area was previously called "Chicago Beach",[6] as the site of the former Chicago Beach Hotel.[7] The locale's peculiar name had its origins in the Chicago Bridge & Iron Company which at one time welded giant floating oil storage tankers called "Kazzans" on the site.[6] The old name persisted for a time after the old hotel was demolished in 1997. "Dubai Chicago Beach Hotel" was the Public Project Name for the construction phase of the Burj Al Arab Hotel until Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum announced the new name: Burj Al Arab.[7]

The Theatre of Digital Art (ToDA) opened in 2020 at Souk Madinat in Jumeirah as an exhibition space for digital art.[8]

 

See also

[edit]
  • Jumeirah Beach
  • Jumeirah Beach Hotel
  • Jumeira Baccalaureate School
  • Palm Jumeirah
  • Jumeirah Mosque
  • City Walk

References

[edit]
  1. ^ https://www.dsc.gov.ae/en-us/EServices/Pages/geo-stat.aspx. Dubai Statistics Center
  2. ^ a b Al Amir, Khitam; Cherian, Dona (2020-01-09). "Look: Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid visits Jumeirah Archaeological Site". Gulf News. Retrieved 2020-01-12.
  3. ^ a b "Mohammed bin Rashid visits Jumeirah Archaeological Site". Emirates 24/7. 2020-01-09. Retrieved 2020-01-12.
  4. ^ a b "'Happy and proud' Ruler of Dubai meets archaeologists at Jumeirah dig site". The National. 2020-01-09. Retrieved 2020-01-12.
  5. ^ Lorimer, John (1915). Gazetteer of the Persian Gulf Vol II. British Government, Bombay. p. 454.
  6. ^ a b Krane, Jim City of Gold: Dubai and the Dream of Capitalism, page 103, St. Martin's Press (September 15, 2009)
  7. ^ a b "Chicago Beach Dubai". www.dubaiasitusedtobe.com. Retrieved 2016-06-11.
  8. ^ "Theatre of Digital Art". visitdubai.com. Visit Dubai. Retrieved 18 April 2022.
[edit]
Archaeological site
  • Jumeirah Archaeological Site, Dubai Culture & Arts Authority
  • Lonelyplanet website
Majlis Ghorfat Umm Al-Sheif
  • Majlis Ghorfat Umm Al Sheif, Dubai Culture & Arts Authority

 

 

Burj Al Arab
برج العرب
Jumeirah Burj Al Arab in 2007
Map
Interactive map of the Burj Al Arab
برج العرب area
General information
Status Completed
Type Luxury hotel
Architectural style Structural expressionism
Location Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Construction started 10 July 1994; 31 years ago (1994-07-10)
Completed 1999; 27 years ago (1999)
Opening 1 December 1999; 26 years ago (1999-12-01)[1]
Cost US$1 billion[2]
Management Jumeirah
Height
Architectural 321 m (1,053 ft)
Top floor 197.5 m (648 ft)
Technical details
Floor count 56 (3 below ground)[3]
Lifts/elevators 18[3]
Design and construction
Architect Tom Wright of WKA
Developer Jumeirah Group
Structural engineer Atkins
Main contractor Murray & Roberts / Concor
Other information
Number of rooms 202[3]
Website
www.jumeirah.com/en/stay/dubai/burj-al-arab-jumeirah Edit this at Wikidata
References
[3][4][5][6][7]

The Jumeirah Burj Al Arab (Arabic: برج العرب, lit.'Arab Tower'), commonly known as Burj Al Arab, is a luxury hotel in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.[8] Developed and managed by Jumeirah, it is one of the tallest hotels in the world, although 39% of its total height is made up of non-occupiable space.[9][10][11] Burj Al Arab stands on an artificial island that is 280 m (920 ft) from Jumeirah Beach and is connected to the mainland by a private curving bridge. The shape of the structure is designed to resemble the sail of a dhow.[12] It has a helipad near the roof, at a height of 210 m (689 ft) above ground.

Site

[edit]

The beachfront area where Jumeirah Burj Al Arab and Jumeirah Beach Hotel are located was previously called Chicago Beach.[13] The hotel is located on an island of reclaimed land, 280 m (920 ft) offshore of the beach of the former Chicago Beach Hotel. The former hotel was demolished during the construction of the Burj Al Arab.[14] The locale's name had its origins in the Chicago Bridge & Iron Company, which at one time welded giant floating oil storage tanks, known locally as Kazzans, on the site.[13]

History

[edit]

The Burj Al Arab was designed by the British multidisciplinary consultancy Atkins, led by architect Tom Wright of WKA. He came up with the iconic design and signature translucent fiberglass facade that serves as a shield from the desert sun during the day and as a screen for illumination at night.[15] The design and construction were managed by Canadian engineer Rick Gregory, and construction managed by David Kirby also of WS Atkins. The Burj Al Arab's interior is by British-Chinese designer Khuan Chew. Construction of the island began in 1994 and involved up to 2,000 construction workers during peak construction. Two "wings" spread in a V to form a vast "mast", while the space between them is enclosed in a massive atrium. The setting of a high rise building on saturated soil and the novelty of the project required groundbreaking dynamic analysis and design to take into consideration soil-structure interaction, effect of water, high winds, and helipad among other loads, to help finalize the design and take the project into construction.[16][failed verification]

The hotel was built by South African construction contractor Murray & Roberts, now renamed Concor and Al Habtoor Engineering. The interior designs were led and created by Khuan Chew and John Carolan of KCA international and delivered by UAE based Depa Group.[17]

The building opened on 1 December 1999.[1] The New Year's Eve fireworks celebration originated in 2000 with the inauguration of the United Arab Emirates.

The hotel's helipad was designed by Irish architect Rebecca Gernon.[18] The helipad is at the building's 28th floor, and the helipad been used as a car race track, a boxing ring, has hosted a tennis match, and the jumping off point for the highest kite surfing jump in history.[19]

In 2017, the hotel hosted the wedding of Daniel Kinahan, head of the Kinahan Organized Crime Group.[20] The wedding was attended by several prominent drug traffickers, such as Ridouan Taghi, Edin Gačanin, 'Ricardo (El Rico) Riquelme Vega, and Raffaele Imperiale.[20]

Features

[edit]
An AgustaWestland A109E Power landing on the Burj Al Arab's helipad

Several features of the hotel required complex engineering feats to achieve. The hotel rests on an artificial island constructed 280 m (920 ft) offshore. To secure a foundation, the builders drove 230 40-metre-long (130 ft) concrete piles into the sand by drilling method.[21]

Engineers created a ground surface layer of large rocks, which is circled with a concrete honeycomb pattern, which serves to protect the foundation from erosion. It took three years to reclaim the land from the sea, while it took less than three years to construct the building itself. The building contains over 70,000 m3 (92,000 yd3) of concrete and 9,000 tons of steel.[21]

Inside the building, the atrium is 180 m (590 ft) tall.[22]

Given the height of the building, the Burj Al Arab is the world's fifth tallest hotel after Gevora Hotel, JW Marriott Marquis Dubai, Four Seasons Place Kuala Lumpur and Rose and Rayhaan by Rotana. But if buildings with mixed use were stripped off the list, the Burj Al Arab would be the world's third tallest hotel. The structure of the Rose Rayhaan, also in Dubai, is 333 metres (1,093 ft) tall,[23] 12 m (39 ft) taller than the Burj Al Arab, which is 321 metres (1,053 ft) tall.[23]The Burj Al Arab's helipad, located 210 meters above ground, has been the site of several high-profile events, including a tennis match between Roger Federer and Andre Agassi, and stunts by Red Bull athletes.[citation needed]

Rooms and suites

[edit]

The hotel is managed by the Jumeirah Group. The hotel has 199 exclusive suites each allocated eight dedicated staff members and a 24-hour butler service.[24] The smallest suite occupies an area of 169 m2 (1,820 sq ft), the largest covers 780 m2 (8,400 sq ft).[25]

The Royal Suite, billed at US$24,000 per night, is listed at number 12 on World's 15 most expensive hotel suites compiled by CNN Go in 2012.[26]

The Burj Al Arab is very popular with the Chinese market, which made up 25 percent of all bookings at the hotel in 2011 and 2012.[27]

Restaurants

[edit]
Al Muntaha
Al Mahara

There are six restaurants in the hotel, including:

Al Muntaha ("The Ultimate"), is located 200 m (660 ft) above the Persian Gulf, offering a view of Dubai. It is supported by a full cantilever that extends 27 m (89 ft) from either side of the mast, and is accessed by a panoramic elevator.[citation needed]

Al Mahara ("Oyster"), which is accessed via a simulated submarine voyage, features a large seawater aquarium, holding roughly 990,000 L (260,000 US gal) of water. The wall of the tank, made of acrylic glass in order to withstand the water pressure, is about 18 cm (7.1 in) thick.[citation needed]

Rating

[edit]

While the hotel has sometimes been described as "the world's only 'seven-star' hotel", the hotel management claims never to have done so themselves. The term appeared due to a British journalist who had visited the hotel on a tour before it was officially opened. The journalist described Burj al Arab as "more than anything she has ever seen" and therefore referred to it as a seven-star hotel.[28] A Jumeirah Group spokesperson said "There's not a lot we can do to stop it. We're not encouraging the use of the term. We've never used it in our advertising."[29]

Reception

[edit]

Burj Al Arab has attracted criticism as "a contradiction of sorts, considering how well-designed and impressive the construction ultimately proves to be."[25] The contradiction here seems to be related to the hotel's decor. "This extraordinary investment in state-of-the-art construction technology stretches the limits of the ambitious urban imagination in an exercise that is largely due to the power of excessive wealth." Another critic includes negative critiques for the city of Dubai as well: "both the hotel and the city, after all, are monuments to the triumph of money over practicality. Both elevate style over substance."[25] Yet another: "Emulating the quality of palatial interiors, in an expression of wealth for the mainstream, a theater of opulence is created in Burj Al Arab ... The result is a baroque effect".[25]

[edit]

The last chapter of the espionage novel Performance Anomalies[30][31] takes place at the top of the Burj Al Arab,[32] where the spy protagonist Cono 7Q discovers that through deadly betrayal his spy nemesis Katerina has maneuvered herself into the top echelon of the government of Kazakhstan. The hotel can also be seen in Syriana and also some Bollywood movies.[which?]

Richard Hammond included the building in his television series Richard Hammond's Engineering Connections.

The Jumeirah Burj Al Arab serves as the cover image for the 2009 album Ocean Eyes by Owl City.

The Burj Al Arab was the site of the last task of the fifth episode of the first season of the Chinese edition of The Amazing Race, where teams had to clean up a room to the hotel's standards.[33][34]

The building is featured in Matthew Reilly's novel The Six Sacred Stones, where a kamikaze pilot crashes a plane into the hotel, destroying it in an attempt to kill the protagonist, Jack West Jr.

The building was the location of the main challenge of the ninth episode of the Canadian-American animated television series Total Drama Presents: The Ridonculous Race,[35] where contestants were tasked to either return a serve from a tennis robot on the hotel's helipad, or squeegee an entire column of the hotel's windows.

See also

[edit]
  • W Barcelona (Hotel Vela) – skyscraper of similar appearance in Barcelona, Spain (sail)
  • Oman TiT – residential skyscraper of similar appearance in Taipei, Taiwan (sail)
  • Elite Plaza – a similar-shaped skyscraper in Yerevan, Armenia
  • JW Marriott Panama (Panama City) – similar structure
  • Spinnaker Tower, Portsmouth – similar structure in Portsmouth, UK
  • Vasco da Gama Tower – a skyscraper of similar appearance in Lisbon, Portugal (sail)
  • Sail Tower – a skyscraper of similar appearance in Haifa, Israel (sail)
  • List of tallest buildings in the United Arab Emirates
  • List of buildings in Dubai
  • List of tallest buildings in Dubai

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b "Media Fact File of Burj Al Arab" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 7 August 2018. Retrieved 28 May 2021.
  2. ^ Swibel, Matthew (15 March 2014). "Forbes.com: Arabian Knight". www.forbes.com. Retrieved 2 July 2020.
  3. ^ a b c d "Burj Al Arab Hotel – The Skyscraper Center". Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat. Retrieved 7 May 2023.
  4. ^ "Emporis building ID 107803". Emporis. Archived from the original on 15 February 2020.
  5. ^ "Burj Al Arab". SkyscraperPage.
  6. ^ Burj Al Arab at Structurae
  7. ^ "Stay at Burj Al Arab". Jumeirah. Archived from the original on 25 December 2018. Retrieved 4 January 2010.
  8. ^ Eytan, Declan. "Milan: Inside the World's Only Certified 7 Star Hotel". Forbes. Retrieved 5 April 2018.
  9. ^ "Vanity Height: the Use-less Space in Today's Tallest". CTBUH. Archived from the original on 17 November 2013. Retrieved 25 November 2013.
  10. ^ "Study: Skyscrapers Topped by Wasted Space". World Property Channel. 6 September 2013. Archived from the original on 13 November 2013. Retrieved 25 November 2013.
  11. ^ Solon, Olivia (6 September 2013). "Report names and shames vanity skyscrapers with unnecessary spires". Wired. Archived from the original on 15 November 2013. Retrieved 25 November 2013.
  12. ^ "Burj Al Arab". www.atkinsglobal.com. Retrieved 3 July 2020.
  13. ^ a b Krane, Jim City of Mud: Dubai and the Dream of Capitalism, page 103, St. Martin's Press (15 September 2009)
  14. ^ "Dubai's Chicago Beach Hotel". Dubai As It Used To Be. Retrieved 25 November 2013.
  15. ^ "Lonely Planet | Travel Guides & Travel Information". Lonely Planet. Retrieved 10 September 2024.
  16. ^ Chalhoub, Michel Soto (1993). "Structural Design and Deep Foundation Soil-Structure Interaction of Burj-Al-Arab - A Comparison of Two Alternatives". Parsons Engineering.
  17. ^ Pantin, Travis (17 February 2009). "Depa announces strong growth". The National. Retrieved 2 July 2020.
  18. ^ "From the inside out". Construction Week Online Middle East. March 2011.
  19. ^ "Global Gateway". CNN. 1 July 2020. Retrieved 8 July 2020.
  20. ^ a b Caesar, Ed (20 October 2025). "The Cocaine Kingpin Living Large in Dubai". The New Yorker. ISSN 0028-792X.
  21. ^ a b "Burj Al Arab". EgyptEng.com engineering directory. 2000. Archived from the original on 17 January 2007. Retrieved 24 January 2007.
  22. ^ "VIDEO: Burj Al Arab's 15th anniversary 'dream'". HotelierME. 28 November 2014.
  23. ^ a b "The world's 17 tallest hotels – for the ultimate room with a view". The Telegraph. 11 February 2016. ISSN 0307-1235. Archived from the original on 12 January 2022. Retrieved 8 July 2020.
  24. ^ "Burj Al Arab". www.jumeirah.com. Retrieved 21 September 2022.
  25. ^ a b c d Damluji, Salma Samar, The Architecture of the U.A.E.. Reading, UK: 2006.
  26. ^ Arnold, Helen "World's 15 most expensive hotel suites" Archived 2 November 2012 at the Wayback Machine CNN Go. 25 March 2012. Retrieved 11 April 2012
  27. ^ "Jumeirah gets ravenous for China". TTGmice. Archived from the original on 5 June 2013. Retrieved 27 March 2013.
  28. ^ Parr, Christopher. "Burj Al Arab Jumeirah, Dubai: Inside The 7 Star Luxury Hotel". Business Insider. Retrieved 23 July 2020.
  29. ^ Bundhun, Rebecca (14 July 2009). "Hotel star ratings standards long overdue". The National. Retrieved 10 December 2010.
  30. ^ "Performance Anomalies". Goodreads. Retrieved 15 May 2017.
  31. ^ Lee, Victor Robert (20 December 2012). Performance Anomalies. USA: Perimeter Six. ISBN 978-1-938409-22-6.
  32. ^ Lee, Victor Robert (15 January 2013). Performance Anomalies: A Novel. Perimeter Six Press. p. 327. ISBN 978-1-938409-20-2.
  33. ^ "Burj Al Arab hotel stars in Chinese reality TV show". Arabian Business. 18 November 2014. Retrieved 7 January 2020.
  34. ^ "卓美亚集团与「极速前进」首次合作" [Jumeirah Group collaborates with The Amazing Race for the first time]. Neeu (in Chinese). Archived from the original on 27 July 2020. Retrieved 7 January 2020.
  35. ^ "Press Release". corusent.com. Archived from the original on 15 July 2014. Retrieved 16 June 2014.

Further reading

[edit]
  • Rose, Steve (28 November 2005). "Architecture: Sand and freedom". The Guardian.
[edit]
  • Official website Edit this at Wikidata

 

Reviews for Helicopter Ride and Tours Dubai


Helicopter Ride and Tours Dubai, Al Warsan Building - near Media Rotana, Ground Floor - Al Thanyah First - Barsha Heights - Dubai - United Arab Emirates

Cristina Farrugia

(5)

We booked this as a surprise for my son's birthday and we nailed it - he loved the thrill of the helicopter ride itself, but also the spectacular views from above. The pilot was very friendly and knowledgeable. We learned so much more about Abu Dhabi than we would have ever done from walking around - and the views from above of the Mosque and of the palaces are unmatched.It is MUST experience in Abu Dhabi.

Helicopter Ride and Tours Dubai, Al Warsan Building - near Media Rotana, Ground Floor - Al Thanyah First - Barsha Heights - Dubai - United Arab Emirates

Bhaskara Rao Molleti

(5)

Excellent ride experience, super view of Dubai with safety .

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Frequently Asked Questions

Yes, Helicopter Tour Dubai follows strict UAE aviation regulations with experienced pilots and well maintained helicopters.

A Helicopter Tour Dubai is a luxury aerial sightseeing experience that lets you see Dubai’s skyline, coastline, and iconic landmarks from above.

You can book Helicopter Tour Dubai online, by phone, or via email with instant confirmation options.