Burj Al Arab is widely used as the trademark building of Dubai. With all account, there is no other building that would look like Burj Al Arab, the only “7 star hotel in the world”.
Burj Al Arab is also one of the first architectural wonders of Dubai that helped to call the attention of the world to the incredibly dynamical development of Dubai. Burj Al Arab opened its doors to the first guests of the hotel in 1999. The shape of the grandiose hotel resembles a dhow, which is a traditional Arabic vessel, an old symbol of Dubai and which signals the beginning of Dubai’s international business role as a pearl distributor and the seller of fish, spices and high style jewellery to other lands. Dubai has long been part of one of the most known international trade routes born in the Middle Ages: called Silk Route. Thanks to its situation, Dubai is a real gate towards Asia, towards Europe and towards Africa all the same. The Arabic dhows sailed incredible distances packed with goods on their way to and on their way coming back from their destinations.
Burj Al Arab Hotel stands on a small island specifically built for the hotel in order to bring even more its role as a ship. It has located about 280 metres from the Jumeirah Beach, which also means that the whole Jumeirah beach has a great view of the vessel shaped architectural wonder. Burj Al Arab is currently the second tallest hotel in the world with a height of 321 metres. In the category, only those structures count which are wholly used as hotels and not only partly. The designer of the luxury hotel is Tom Wright, a British architect working for WS Atkins PLC in cooperation with the Canadian engineer Rick Gregory working for the same company. According to them, the message of the building was clear before the designing actually begun. Dubai has stated that they want such a building which has the great potential to become world famous for its outlook, for being an icon to Dubai and the enormous Dubai money and development at that time. After the publishing of the designs and the appeal of the Sheikh of Dubai, the constructions started in 1994. Interestingly the construction of the base of the hotel together with the small island it’s located now lasted more time than the actual building of the building itself. The hotel is well known for its huge and extremely large atrium that is located between the V shaped wings of the structure.
The observation point of Al Muntaha of Burj Al Arab offers a great view to Dubai and to the water of the Persian Gulf. The building has its panoramic elevator. It is most famous restaurant called Al Mahara (Oyster in Arabic) reached through a submarine–like trip and built under the water showing us the beautiful creatures of the sea through an extremely huge aquarium. Burj Al Arab’s restaurants are so favoured by everyone arriving in Dubai, that they are fully booked for months ahead.
