Burj Al Arab

A sail-shaped luxury hotel on its own artificial island, an emblem of Dubai.

The hotel opened on 1 December 1999 and quickly became a symbol of modern Dubai. It has a helipad high up near the roof, 210 metres above the ground. Although it is one of the tallest hotels in the world, about 39 percent of its total height is empty space that people cannot occupy, such as the top of the mast.

Designing a sail

The British firm Atkins designed the building, and the architect Tom Wright came up with the sail idea. The front is covered with a see-through glass-fibre fabric that works as a sunshade by day and as a giant screen for coloured lights at night.

Two wings spread in a V shape to make a tall mast, and a huge open atrium fills the space between them. The atrium is about 180 metres tall.

An island in the sea

The island was built first. Work began in 1994, and it took three years to reclaim land from the sea, while the building itself took less than three years. To make the base solid, builders drove 230 concrete piles, each 40 metres long, into the sand. A layer of big rocks ringed by a concrete honeycomb protects it from the waves.

Because a tall building was going up on soft, wet ground beside the sea, engineers also had to study how soil, water and strong winds would act on it. The area was once called Chicago Beach.

Inside and on top

The hotel has 199 suites, each with its own staff and a 24-hour butler. Its Al Mahara restaurant is reached by a pretend submarine ride and sits beside a large seawater aquarium. The tank wall is made of acrylic glass about 18 centimetres thick.

The helipad has been used as a tennis court for a match between Roger Federer and Andre Agassi. Some people call the hotel "seven-star", but the hotel says it never used that term; it began with a journalist's remark.

On the globe

The model shows the sail-shaped hotel on its island. Look for the curved bridge and the tall white sail.