As I mentioned at the beginning, there are two places on this world where money is everything. And making money is most important profession there. We saw that one of these places is Wall Street. Best and funiest American playground for rich people and for those who want to earn. Now lets go on another place. Lets go in Dubai. It is completely different but in some way the same. All you need there is of course money.
As we know Dubai is huge, rich, modern city. With glass buildings and islands rise up from the ocean. But what was it before? Is it old city with a lot of rich history or something else? Answer is something else, something what you wouldn’t expect.
First record of Dubai dated from 1095. And first settlement there was made in 1799. At beginning Dubai was fishing village. Making fishing and shellfish seeling only jobs there. Also they were seeling pearls, but it was job for a few people then. This is Dubai in its beginning.
Poor place to live. But discovering oli all changes. In one night Dubai becomes one of biggest oil exporter. Starting to make huge profit. In 1971 Dubai and six other emirates made United Arap emirates. It was made from the group of tribally organized Arabian Peninsula sheikhdoms along the southern coast of the Persian Gulf and the northwestern coast of the Oman. Than real rising of Dubai started, and it still last.
But they know about oil reserve that are soon will be drained out. So they need a new plan if they want to Dubai stays on top. So Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum Vice-President and Prime minister had a plan. He wanted to make Dubai biggest and most famous city in the world. That building rush started in 1968 and still is lasting. At first building was ordinary, not too special, but in 90s they become building worlds wonders. Many Indian and Pakistan’s people moved into Dubai when this rush started. Population of Dubai increased four times in period from 1968-1975. They come for basics jobs in building. Today Dubai has 2.2 million residents.
Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum is also known as father of Dubai. He died October 7th 1990 in 78 year of life. New ruler of Dubai becomes his eldest son Maktoum bin Rashid Al Maktoum.
Growth of Dubai is still lasting. They still produce 4% of world’s oil. Making $45 billion profit. But real future moneymaker in Dubai is tourism. So they are still making worlds wonders. There are so many of them so I cannot write about every single of them, but about few most interested (expensive) I will write.
This is Burj Khalifa. It is the most highest building in the world. It is 828m high. It has 163 appartments. It has three reservoars for wather so the wather pumps can make wather go so high. Because of extremes temperatures in Dubai, this building have wather cooling. Without that glass will break. Interesting story is when they designed building, Maktoum, said he wanted the world highest building. When they started to design Burj Khalifa sheikh told them he wants higher. So they started again. And again he wanted higher. So team leader approach sheikh ant showed him that his building would be more than two times higher than Eifel tower in Paris. Then sheikh said yes.
Because Dubai has land of just 4,114 km², they wanted more. So now they are currently stealing land from sea, making artificial islands. One of them is Palm Island. Palm Islands are two artificial islands, Palm Jumeirah and Palm Jebel Ali, on the coast of Dubai. Project started in 2002 and last to 2006. During that time 500 million tons of sand and rock was used in building. Process of making is that specially design ship is taking sand from sea surface and places it on rocks. So you get Real Island. It has 7 million rocks, and every single of them is put there with a crane, one by one. Now there are luxury hotels, apartments and all you need. It was good investment for rich people. If they had bought a house there for $2 millions, today they could sell it twice as that. So many rich people have done that. Having one or two house there. Waiting good price so they can sell them and gain profit. Like on stock market. If you are worried about sea life that was there, well don’t be. On place where Palm Island is located were many coral reefs. They moved all of them with special technique, so none of them was destroyed.
Near Palm Islands is one more astonishing creation. “The Universe” It is artificially made islands that looking from air looks like countries on planet. Price for one “country” is $50 million. Already they sold all countries. So if you want your own country you know where to go.
One of the first symbols of Dubai was Jumeirah Beach Hotel. It was made in 1997 and then it was one of the biggest hotels in the world. The hotel contains 598 rooms and suites, 19 beachfront villas, and 20 restaurants and bars. This wave-shaped hotel complements the sail-shaped Burj Al Arab, which is adjacent to the Jumeirah Beach Hotel. The hotel occupies a location on the beach. Most famous symbol of Dubai is certainly Burj al Arab (tower of the Arabs). It is most expensive and most luxury hotel in the world.
The world's only 7 star Hotel and is the third tallest hotel in the world. The beachfront area where Burj Al Arab and Jumeirah Beach Hotel are located was previously called Chicago Beach. The hotel is located on an island of reclaimed land 280 meters offshore of the beach of the former Chicago Beach Hotel. 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. The old name persisted after the old Hotel was demolished in 1997. Dubai Chicago Beach Hotel remained as the Public Project Name for the construction phase of Burj Al Arab Hotel until Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum announced the new name.