A glistening glass yacht rises out of the Persian Gulf. It's the jewel of Dubai -- the tallest hotel in the world. Luxury cars ferry people across an ocean causeway to the hotel's own man-made island. Helicopters with VIP guests land on a suspended helipad, a disc hovering far above the sea. Fireballs burst at the entrance and a fountain shoots jets of water into the cavernous, gold-filled atrium. Ushers welcome guests with rose water, dates and coffee while escorting them to two-story suites manned by personal butlers. Welcome to the Burj Al Arab -- Dubai's seven-star hotel.
 Photo courtesy Jumeirah Dubai's Burj Al Arab towers over the Persian Gulf. See more pictures of Dubai. |
Guests at the Burj look out of their floor-to-ceiling windows onto a city dotted with fantastical high-rises and countless cranes. Dubai, an emirate of the United Arab Emirates, has seemingly grown up overnight -- it was once a sandy bedouin town of pearl divers and fishermen, and, more recently, a drab and dusty oil state. Oil, in fact, is the force behind Dubai's race to become one of the world's great cities -- but not in the way you might expect. Dubai's oil is running out. It should be completely gone in the next 10 years. And with the source of its original wealth dwindling, Dubai's ruler, Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, has pushed his country into a more modern business: tourism.
In the next section we'll learn how the Burj Al Arab rose out of the Persian Gulf.
The Palm Islands are the largest man-made islands in the world. Learn how they were made in this HowStuffWorks video. The Burj Dubai -- the tallest building in the world -- looms over Dubai's skyline. Check it out in this HowStuffWorks video. |
