# Dubai Tries to Find its Place in World Records



## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

*Dubai Tries to Find Its Place in the World In the Record Books *
Locals Light 2,100 Candles And Build Longest Sofa; A 7.5-Mile Line of Verse 
By Daniel Michaels 
20 January 2005
The Wall Street Journal

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates -- Not far from the world's biggest man-made island and the world's tallest hotel here is a luxury apartment building that will be topped by the world's highest and largest sundial. 

A few minutes down the road, construction has begun on the world's tallest building, to be flanked by the world's most spacious shopping mall, housing the world's largest indoor aquarium. Each March, the nearby racetrack runs the world's richest horse race, with a $6 million purse. 

"All over Dubai, you have so many world records," says Bevis Douyers, restaurant manager at the Ramada Dubai Hotel. "This one's old -- almost 25 years," he says, gazing up the hotel's 12-story atrium at the world's largest stained-glass mural. 

Dubai, a city-state in the United Arab Emirates with a population of a little more than one million, would rank as one of the world's smallest countries on its own. Helped by the draw of year-round sun and desert-sand beaches, it boasts one of the world's fastest-growing economies. But until a few years ago, it was one of the world's least-known destinations. 

To grab a place on the world map, locals turned to the Guinness Book of World Records, with stunts like building the world's longest sofa (100 feet), lighting the largest number of candles on a cake (2,100) and creating the world's largest incense burner (10 feet tall). In a sign of its global perspective, Dubai in 1998 financed the world's first cross between an Arabian camel and an Andean llama, dubbed a cama. 

"It's an awful lot of records for such a small place," says Guinness World Records Ltd. spokesman Sam Knights. Dubai could even be on track to set the record for most records per capita, he figures. 

As Dubai's wealth grew in recent years, so did the world's biggest Napoleon complex. The emirate's rulers, emboldened by economic success, wanted to escape the shadow of more prominent neighbors. Abu Dhabi, the emirate next door, is far richer. Nearby India, Iran and Pakistan are far larger. Dubai far outdoes them in its unabashed need for attention. 

Many of the records were set purely for publicity as part of the monthlong Dubai Shopping Festival, an annual sale that draws consumers from around the world. There will be more on Feb. 8, in the Dubai World Records Venture, part of the shopping festival. Officials plan to set six records. They include the largest national flag formed by students, the largest mosaic made of cans, the largest flaming image, and the largest gathering of men named Mohammed. 

Beyond these ventures, money is pouring into Dubai from around the Mideast, where it boasts a reputation for stability, openness and enterprise. Those investors are helping build Dubai's economy and realize its dreams of creating a glittering, modern oasis. 

"Stunts were more of a marketing thing," says Mohammed Abdul Mannan, spokesman at the Dubai Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing. He says he may skip the Feb. 8 gathering of men named Mohammed. "You eat the world's largest cake and then you forget it," he says. "It doesn't help the economy." 

Mr. Mannan wrote the book on Dubai's world records. Entitled "Dubai: A City Making History," the coffee-table tome lists 43 of Dubai's achievements. Besides the couch, the cake and the sundial, they include the world's biggest spaghetti bowl and world's biggest cradle. 

Mr. Mannan says those feats pale compared to serious tourist attractions like the world's most expensive water park and largest indoor ski slope, slated to open later this year. Dubai officials hope such mammoth creations will entice tourists to return once they've tired of beaches and sun. 

And to draw a wealthier crowd of tourists, Dubai has erected the world's tallest building used solely as a hotel, perched on a man-made island just offshore in the Persian Gulf. The 1,053-foot-tall, sail-shaped Burj Al Arab claims to be the world's most luxurious hotel. Each room, from the basic Deluxe up to the $7,600-a-night Royal Suite, is a duplex with its own butler. 

Out in the water nearby, clearly visible from the hotel's 54th-floor bar, Palm Island is almost finished. Meticulously dredged in the shape of a palm tree, it will soon have about 2,000 luxury villas rising from its drying banks. By adding 75 miles of beachfront, planners also created a new region where officials are comfortable selling land to foreigners. In Dubai itself, outsiders were traditionally allowed only to rent property. Demand has been so strong that the developers are preparing two more, even bigger islands. 

The second Palm Island will feature an aquatic theme park and be surrounded by the world's largest community in the shape of Arabic calligraphy: 1,060 homes jutting up from the water on stilts will form a 7.5 mile-long line of verse visible from the air. Penned by Dubai's crown prince and the U.A.E.'s defense minister, Gen. Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, the text reads: "Take Wisdom from the wise -- Not everyone who rides a horse is a jockey." 

The giant poem should also help this relatively tolerant emirate dismiss Gulf neighbors' accusations that globalization is sapping Dubai's Arab character. This port city was a regional entrepot open to foreigners for centuries and hasn't suffered terrorist attacks in recent years. The ruling Al-Maktoum family has so far avoided problems of radical Islam by reinvesting in Dubai and spreading its wealth among the tiny population -- which is also monitored by an effective security service. 

Many of Dubai's planned records are aimed at boosting national pride, which rulers hope will blunt potential opposition to their reign. Perhaps none would swell patriotism more than Dubai's boldest project. 

Outside a vast construction site in the central business district, a billboard touts "The World's Most Exclusive Square Kilometer." Inside, work has already begun on the Burj Dubai, or Dubai Tower, which promises to be the world's tallest building and home to the world's first Giorgio Armani hotel. 

The tower's planned height is "a closely guarded secret," marketing materials say. Rumors say it could reach 2,970 feet on completion in 2009, and a promotional brochure shows elevator buttons rising at least to floor 189. 

Freedom Tower, which is planned for the World Trade Center site in New York, is also angling to be the world's tallest building, at 1,776 feet. Burj Dubai's developer, Emaar Properties PJSC, notes New York's plans in its literature and says the Gulf spire "will beat all records on a scale that will be a dramatic testament to Dubai's faith in the future." 

The adjoining mall will testify to Dubai's faith in commerce. Emaar plans it as a 12 million-square-foot complex of shops and restaurants broken into a dozen "minimalls." It will also boast a giant waterfall plunging into the world's largest indoor aquarium. 

And as if all this weren't enough, a cluster of 300 man-made islands -- bigger than the Palm Islands -- is taking shape in the form of an oval map of the Earth. The project's name: The World.


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## smussuw (Feb 1, 2004)

hkskyline said:


> Dubai in 1998 financed the world's first cross between an Arabian camel and an Andean llama, dubbed a cama.


It was done by my uncel (father's brother). :gunz:


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## DUBAI (Aug 24, 2004)

cool, does he still have one?


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## smussuw (Feb 1, 2004)

dxb_raptor said:


> cool, does he still have one?


am not sure !!!


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## juiced (Aug 18, 2004)

what was its name lol


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## Krazy (Apr 27, 2004)

:llama:


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## SkylineTurbo (Dec 22, 2004)

World's longest sofa, imagine the comfort?


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## Qatar4Ever (Feb 3, 2004)

really interesting article to read... thanks


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## DUBAI (Aug 24, 2004)

juiced said:


> what was its name lol



RAMA THE CAMA, apparently!!!


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## Face81 (Aug 24, 2004)

dxb_raptor said:


> RAMA THE CAMA, apparently!!!


u r absolutely right! I remember this story frome a few years ago......

here is a pic of Rama, the Worlds first Cama!


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