Until 2008 Burj Al Arab, which in Arabic means the Tower of the Arabs unofficially was called the only seven star hotel. This name was not, however, given to the hotel by its owners and was never advertised as such, but by an awe stricken British journalist, who visited the place on a pre-opening press trip.
Location of Burj Al Arab a seven star hotel.
Being the fourth tallest hotel in the world at 1053 feet it stands on an artificial island in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. An island is located 920 feet of the Jumeirah beach and is connected to the main land by a private curving bridge.
The structure of the hotel was designed by an architect Tom Wright from WKK Architects and resembles a sail of an arab vessel, dhow, with 39% of its height a non-liveable space. Tom Wright mentioned that an owner wanted “a building that would become an iconic or symbolic statement for Dubai; this is very similar toSydney with its OperaHouse, Londonwith Big Ben, or Paris with the Eiffel Tower. It needed to be a building that would become synonymous with the name of the country.”
The famous building opened in 1999 and a construction of an island it stands upon began in 1994. It took three years to win the land from the sea and the rest of time to build the” sail” itself. Despite its height it has only 28 double-story floors with 202 bedroom suites, with the largest one of 8400 square feet decorated with designer details, rich fabrics in warm hues and bathrooms made of mosaic tiles. The Royal Suite costs 18 716$ per a single night and is a number 12 on the World`s 15 most expensive hotel suites list made up by CNN in 2012.
While each suite has a private butler and servants, Burj Al Arab has two signature restaurants. While Al Muntaha takes you high above the Persian Gulf and offers a panoramic view of Dubai Al Mahara drops visitors deep under the water, serves excellent seafood, and has a large seawater aquarium.