SNIPPETS from the MIDDLE-EAST (Part II) : The Glorious Towers of the Emirate

Malaysia can still be proud of retaining the Petronas Tower as being the tallest twin-tower ever constructed anywhere in the whole wide world standing at 452 metres in height. But by international comparison of singular monolithic towers in general, it is ranked as the 7th tallest after Burj Dubai (807m), Chicago Spare (609m), Makkah Abraj al-Bajt Towers (595m), New York Freedom Tower (541m), China 557 Tower (520m), and Shanghai WFC (492m). The landmark Burj al-Arab, the tallest hotel on the Planet, only stands at 321 metres ASL (above sea level).

A Dubai company announced yesterday that it was constructing the world's tallest tower yet, to be known as Nakheel Harbour Tower standing at a height of more than 1 km (rumoured to be 1.4 km) into the sky on a plot adjacent to the present Ibnu Battuta Shopping Mall not far from a man-made island of Palm Jumeirah where I stayed. The tower would have more than 200 floors to house around 19,000 residential units accomodating about 55,000 people.

Another local company was rumoured to be planning to construct a more dizzying 2.4 km high tower in the same vicinity.

The Nakheel Tower project is largely Islamic in design drawing architectural inspirations from the gardens of Alhambra in Spain, the Alexandria Harbour in Egypt, the Tangier Promenade in Morocco and the bridges of Esfahan in Iran.

The Nakheel project is expected to be completed in 10 years.