One of the world’s strangest shaped buildings is almost ready to open to visitors in the steel and glass city of Dubai.
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Dubai Frame Building
Dubai Frame is just that – two towers of 150 metres joined by a 93-metre wide bridge at the top and a similar sized mezzanine museum at ground level to form a rectangular picture frame.
The idea is to join the old and new cities of Dubai. The Frame is tipped to become one of Dubai’s leading tourist attractions.
Standing in the old city and looking through the frame gives a unique view of the modern city’s skyscrapers and up-to-the minute architecture.
Crossing the frame to look the other way shows the colours and much lower buildings of the old city.
The pattern on the frame is a motif repeating the Expo 2020 logo.
Costing $43.5 million, the Dubai Frame is nowhere near the city’s tallest building.
World’s tallest building
The Burj Khalifa holds that record, standing 830 metres high with 163 floors. Dubai has many other towers reaching above the clouds into the sky.
But Burj Khalifa is unique because from the vantage point near the top, observers can see as far as Iran.
Travellers can spot the skyscraper from up to 60 miles away.
The Burj also holds a few other surprises. The tower –
- Holds the world’s highest mosque
- Has 57 lifts
- Has a temperature drop of 6 degrees from the ground to the top level
- Is hit by winds of up to 90mph at the top
- Design was inspired by the desert flower hymenocallis, which has Y-shaped petals
The second tallest Dubai building is the Marina 101 Tower that stands 432 metres – almost half the height of the Burj Khalifa and ranks the 24th tallest building in the world.
Next comes the Princess Tower (413 metres), 23 Marina (393 metres) and 17 other skyscraper between 300 metres and 390 metres tall.
But Dubai lags as the city with most skyscrapers, taking eighth place with 289 behind leader Hong Kong with 1,301 and second-placed New York, with 742.
A skyscraper is generally considered a building more than 100 metres high.