| In Dubai, we made a brief
visit to the Financial Centre, which is one metro stop
north-east of the Burj Khalifa/Dubai Mall station. The Dubai
International Financial Centre (DIFC) is located here - a federal
financial free zone. Sheikh Zayed Road, which is the main artery running
through Dubai, along with the Financial Centre station’s metro line are
shadowed either side by an impressive array of new skyscrapers, which I
felt gave the place an almost canyon-like feel to it. Personally, the main reason I wanted to go to this part of the city was to look at The Al Yaqoub Tower [Ref: Photos 7 & 10 below], a 328 m (1,076 ft) tall hotel skyscraper only recently completed. It has been constructed to form the appearance of the Elizabeth (A.K.A. Big Ben) Tower in London. Permission was not granted to include clock-faces on the structure. The photos here do not appear to show a real sense of scale of the thing; you may find that the images of it found on my webpage showing the views from Burj Khalifa do it more justice to get a feel for its height. Also, near the base, as shown here, it is not possible to see the roofing detail of The Al Yaqoub Tower, which really give it that Big Ben - lookalike feel. To compare, as mentioned The Al Yaqoub Tower which looks like the "Big Ben" Tower in London is 1,076 feet high, the tallest skyscraper in London (and Western Europe), The Shard, is 72 feet shorter at 1,004 feet high and the actual Big Ben (Elizabeth) Tower in London is 'only' 315 feet in height. |
