818 metres Burj Dubai now open

The long-awaited Burj Dubai, the world's tallest building, is to open today. At 818 metres and 160 floors, it is the height of the current highest skyscraper, Taipei 101 in Taiwan, with the Eiffel Tower perched on top.Burj in Arabic means tower, so that the building - which is set next to the Dubai Mall and the world's tallest fountain, called the Dubai Fountain - is named less than imaginatively 'Dubai Tower'. The Burj's height remains officially a secret, although developers have told newspapers that it is 818 metres.

Since ground was broken on the project in January 2004 the tower has led to debate in Dubai that has mirrored the fortunes of the emirate.

For the company behind it, Emaar, and the ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, it is a ''shining accomplishment … an icon of the new Middle East: prosperous, dynamic and successful''.

The purple prose of tourist guidebooks has already had difficulty keeping up with Dubai's transformation from an oriental souk, with picturesque dishdasha-clad residents bobbing on the creek in wooden dhows to the world capital of bling. For them the Burj Dubai has proved a challenge. ''Just damn tall,'' was the pithy conclusion of Lonely Planet.

As the global property boom came to an end, Dubai's vision has turned to nightmare. With the emirate's fall from grace in November after admitting a multibillion-dollar hole in its finances, the Burj took on a deeper symbolism.

Its sharp spire appeared to ''pierce the bubble in the sky'', said one commentator who compared it with Ozymandias, the poem in which Shelley describes the arrogant wreckage of a long-disappeared empire.



''Outrageous, wasteful, egotistical, ridiculous,'' a journalist wrote of it after Dubai asked for a standstill on debt repayments.

The Burj's height remains officially a secret, although developers have told newspapers that it is 818 metres.

Just who will occupy the tower is a mystery due to client confidentiality. However, developers say it is sold out.

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