My Dubai
By Syed Abdul Samad 7BB
Introduction to Dubai
Dubai is a magnificent city in which to live in. It is one of the
main tourist attractions in the world. It consists of the tallest
building in the world, Burj Khalifa, the luxurious Burj Al Arab, the
Palm Jumeirah and lots more. Although it is small, it has the
most amazing locations to go to and is extremely safe.
The Sheikh of Dubai
The sheikh of Dubai is Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al
Maktoum. He is also the prime minister of UAE. He has done a
lot for Dubai. He has built the metro, Burj Khalifa, Burj Al Arab
etc. He has invested billions of dirhams for the development of
this country. He is the 3rd of Rashid Bin Saeed Al Maktoum's 4
sons. His current wife is Princess Haya bint Al Hussein who has
built a school for girls in Rashidiyah. He has also helped other
countries by building hospitals, schools and other sorts of useful
facilities.
Currency of Dubai
The United Arab Emirates dirham was
introduced in December 1971. It
replaced the Qatar and Dubai riyal. The
Qatar and Dubai riyal had existed since
1966 in all of the emirates except
Abu Dhabi. Before 1966, all the emirates that were to form the
UAE used the Gulf rupee.
he name Dirham comes from the Greek word Drachmae, which
means handful in Latin.
In 1973, coins of 1, 5, 10, 25, 50 fills and 1 dirham. The 1, 5 and
10 fills were in brown and the 25, 50 fills and 1 dirham was and
still is in silver. In 1995, the 50 fills coin was reduced in size to a
heptagon. They did this to easily distinguish between the 2 coins.
Local Dresses
The local dress for men is:
• Kandura: it is a long white cloak that locals wear in UAE.
• Guthra: the guthra is the headscarf worn by the locals. The most
popular colors are the plain white or the red and white checks.
• Egal: The Egal is the black rope that fixes the headscarf in place.
• Ghafiyah: this is the hat which Muslims wear when praying.
• Kerkusha: a small like string hanging from the neck.
• Bisht: similar to a jacket and is worn on top of the kandura.
• Faneela: like a vest worn under the kandura.
• Woozar: a piece of white cloth which is tied around the waist under
the Kandura.
• Na-aal: the sandals that are worn with the kandura.
Local Dresses
The local dress for woman is:
• Abaya: a long black gown worn by the UAE National Females
• Shela: it is a piece of material used to loosely cover their
head.
• Hijab: it covers the head, to ensure that the hair is not
exposed, usually with one or two pieces of material.
• Burqa: The Burqa actually represents two items: the
covering of the head except for a slit for the eyes and the
metallic coloured object used to cover part of the face.
• Gishwa: it is a thin black veil that covers the face of the
female.
• Jelabia Mukhawara: this is similar to a gown in some great
colours. It is worn to weddings or special occasions.
• Gafaaz: these are basically gloves to ensure that all of their
skin is covered.
Famous places of Dubai
There are many famous places to visit in Dubai. These places are
listed in details on the next slides.
The Burj Khalifa
The Burj Khalifa is the tallest building in the
world ay 829.84. construction on this
project started on 21st September 2004
and was officially opened on the 4th
January 2010. the main contactor for this
project was Samsung C&T.
The total cost for the project was around 1.5
billion dollars. On March 2009, Mohamed
Ali Alabbar, chairman of the project's developer( Emaar
properties) said the cost of office space at Burj Khalifa reached
US$4,000 per sq ft and the Armani residencies in Burj Khalifa was
US$3,500 per sq ft.
Palm Jumeirah
The Palm Jumeirah is an
artificial archipelago and is
created by the Nakheel
properties. It increases Dubai’s
shoreline by 520 km.
The Palm Jumeirah is shaped like a palm tree. It consists of a
trunk, a crown with 16 fronds, and a crescent surrounding the
island, forming an 11 kilometre breakwater. The island is 5x5
kilometres and its total area is larger than 800 football pitches.
The crown is connected to Dubai by a 300-metre bridge and the
crescent is connected to the top of the palm by a subsea tunnel.
The Palm Jumeirah declares itself as the Eighth Wonder of the
World'. The island doubles the length of the normal Dubai
coastline
Burj Al Arab
Burj Al Arab is a 7 star hotel
located on the Palm
Jumeirah. At 321m long and
is the 4th tallest hotel in the
world. It is connected to the
main land by a private
curving bridge.
Burj Al Arab was designed by Tom Wright. The construction was
managed by Rick Gregory. The project costed 650 million dollars
It was built to resemble the shape of a dhow.
Because the hotel is located on an artificial island, the builders
drove 230, 40 metre piles of concrete into the sand. Then they
created a surface layer of large rocks, which is surrounded with a
concrete honeycomb pattern protects the foundation from
erosion.
References
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohammed_bin_Rashid_Al_Ma
ktoum#Early_life_and_education
• http://www.grapeshisha.com/about-uae/uae-clothing.html
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burj_Khalifa
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palm_Jumeirah
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burj_Al_Arab