New Downtown New Downtown is one of the newest neighbourhoods of Dubai, situated about halfway between the old Downtown and Dubai Marina. Here you can find Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building! The New Downtown is literally built around Burj Khalifa, a wide boulevard, Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Blvd, surrounds it in a half circular shape. The views from Burj Khalifa can be found on this page. Burj Khalifa stands atop the world's largest shopping mall, the exclusive Dubai Mall, with over 1000 stores, and its own aquarium, souk and hockey rink. Inside the "circle" you also find the artificial and newly built Dubai Lake, with the spectacular Dubai Fountain show with light and music in the middle, that was one of the absolute highlights during our visit! It is the world's highest fountain. There are many other skyscrapers in Downtown as well (the two Address hotels for example), even though they are dwarfed by Burj Khalifa. There are also new residential buildings in Middle Eastern style with fancy restaurants built right next to the lake, as well as a new souk (Arabian market) and a fashion street is under construction. Some of the tallest skyscrapers along Sheikh Zayed Road can be found on both sides of Burj Khalifa. |
| BURJ KHALIFA: |
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| Burj Khalifa - the world's tallest building! It was completed in 2010 and is 829m to the top of the spire (739m to the roof) and has 163 floors! We visited the observaton deck, called At the top. The skyscraper was designed by Adrian Smith at the famous Chicago based architect firm Skidmore, Owings and Merrill. The elevators are the fastest in the world! It is a mixed use building, so it houses both offices, apartments and luxury hotels, like the 7-star Armani Hotel. Inititally it was called Burj Dubai, but the name was changed just bofore completion to honour Sheikh Khalifa of Abu Dhabi (the president of UAE), since he borrowed money to complete the project in 2009 when Dubai went bankrupt. To watch my pictures from the observation deck of the world's tallest building, visit this link. |
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INTERIOR OF BURJ KHALIFA:S OBSERVATION DECK "AT THE TOP": Even if it's called At the Top, the observation deck is not at the top, it is situated about halfway to the top to the world's tallest building, 424m in the sky, the 124th floor. There are 163 floors in the building totally, but also a lot of height with just the spire and mast. It is important to know that you have to book you tickets a few weeks before your visit at this site and they are pretty expensive (125 AED for an adult)! The observation deck, partly outside, features a 360 degree view of Dubai! Unfortunately the weather was not the best during our visit to the top (a bit grey and foggy) considering it was in Dubai but could be worse of couse, and since you have to book several weeks before in advance (or pay 400 AED!) you can't really plan the trip considering the weather. To watch my pictures from the observation deck of the world's tallest building, visit this link. |
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| Line to the entrance of the observation deck, groudn floor, and a model of Burj Khalifa | Escalator to the elevator | Passage to the elevator that is going to the observation deck |
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| The world's fastest elevators (700m/min). It takes less then a minute to the observation deck! |
There is a spectacular light show in the elevator while going to the top | The roof of the elevator |
EXAMPLE OF VIEWS FROM BURJ KHALIFA:S OBSERVATION DECK "AT THE TOP": Even if it's called At the Top, the observation deck is not at the top, it is situated about halfway to the top to the world's tallest building, at the 124 floor. There are 163 floors in the building totally, but also a lot of height with just the spire and mast. To watch my pictures from the observation deck of the world's tallest building, visit this link.Here you can find 3 examples. |
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| Dubai Mall, Dubai Lake and The Address Downtown Hotel seen from Burj Khalifa. |
Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashed Blvd, or just The Boulevard, that surrounds Burj Khalifa in a half circular shape. | The nearby skyline of Sheikh Zayed Road, here dominated by The Index, seen from Burj Khalifa. |
DUBAI LAKE and DUBAI FOUNTAIN: Dubai Lake is the beautiful artificial lake in front of Burj Khalifa and Dubai Mall, where you can find brand new buildings in Middle Eastern style housing residential buildings,a souk and outdoor restaurants as well as skyscrapers in western or islamic style. The most famous feature of the lake is the Dubai Fountain, that plays a spectacular water show accompanied with different music songs every half hour. The show is especially spectacular during night (click here to see pictures). It is the highest fountain in the world! |
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DUBAI MALL: Dubai Mall is a huge shopping mall that opened in 2008. It is the largest in the world upon completion based on total area (and 6th largest based on store area, 2014)! It has over 1200 stores and services, the entrance to Burj Khalifa's observation deck At the top is located inside the mall, as well as two water falls, a large aquarium that is a destination of its own, a hockey rink, a souk (market) and international department stores like the American Bloomingdale's, the British Marks & Spencer, Debenhams and the French Galeries Lafayette. In 2012, the mall attracted 65 million visitors, more then the cities of New York and Los Angeles! The internal floor area is 59 million square feet. The mall also features an indoor SEGA theme park, the world's largest candy store and 22 cinemas. |
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| Dubai Aquarium inside Dubai Mall |
Shark in the Dubai Aquariuml | Dubai Aquarium |
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| Galeries Lafayette, a Parisian department store | Most stores of Dubai Mall are very fancy, attracting rich costumers | Dubai Mall, gold souk |
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Gold souk and atrium in Indian style |
The roof of the "Indian" atrium |
The gold souk |
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Grand Atrium, Dubai Mall |
Grand Atrium | Model of Downtown Dubai and Burj Khalifa, Grand Atrium |
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Grand Atrium, Dubai Mall |
Model of Burj Khalifa, Grand Atrium | Model of Burj Khalifa and the mall |
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The history of Dubai and the sheikh, Dubai Mall |
Model of Downtown Dubai with Burj Khalifa, Grand Atrium | Model of Downtown Dubai |
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FINANCIAL CENTRE ROAD AND THE BOULEVARD, DUBAI FINANCIAL CENTRE, entrance to the Dubai Mall: These roads surround the relative small New Downtown area. The Boulevard, also called Sheikh Mohammed bin Rasheed Blvd is very new, filled with palms, fountainas, fancy residential buildings and skyscrapers, and is constructed in a half circle. The photos below were taken from one of the entrances to the Dubai Mall. To get from Dubai Mall to Burj Khalifa's metro station, you have to get through eternal networks of elevated pedestrian bridges, escalators, moving sidewalks and part of this huge shopping mall, one evening just to find out that the metro was closed one half hour before closing time at midnight! However, the views from these pedestrian bridges are nice. |
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Cars at the entrance to Dubai Mall |
Cars at the entrance to Dubai Mall | Cars at the entrance to Dubai Mall |
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The Address Dubai Mall |
Tiffanys at the entrance to Dubai Mall | A new skyscraper u/c, seen from the pedestrian bridge to Burj Khalifa metro stopars at the entrance to Dubai Mall, above The Boulevard |
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| DOWNTOWN BY NIGHT: To see more of night/evening pictures from the New Downtown, click on this link |
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Burj Khalifa - the world's tallest building! Watch the night section here |
The Lake, Dubai Fountain, and The Address Downtown Hotel | Burj Khalifa and other Downtown skyscrapers @ night |
