While most people would go to Dubai as a luxury destination, many would fail to comprehend the mind-boggling fact that it has been constructed in a harsh desert unfit for people to thrive. Put this on top of the fact that Dubai uses one of the highest amounts of water annually in the world and that all of the materials used to construct the city were imported, you would think that the city shouldn’t even be able to sustain and pay for itself. It is a somewhat terrifying example of a mammoth-size life support, on which millions of people rely on their lives. Such a massive project can be considered a feat of human evolution and would need to be funded by an inconsolable amount of money.
However, the country behind this city, otherwise known as the UAE, was not always the bustling-rich country that it is today. Not just a few generations ago it was populated by poor nomads traveling by camel and sleeping under the stars in dusty tents. Such a lifestyle carried on for hundreds of years, and it was only after the 1970s when they found oil that their luck soon turned around. Today, all of the profits from the oil have been funded in colossal projects which all come together and form the now world-renowned Dubai. This city has shattered previous world records formally thought to be impossible to beat, from the world’s tallest tower to building the world’s biggest mall twice, all the way to the world’s largest man-made island. We had come to Dubai to experience all of this, and to compare it to the other countries which we had previously visited.
We were only going to stay here for just under a week, and during that time we would devise a plan to get as much from the country as we could muster. The first day was spent exploring the world’s largest mall. Immediately, we were shown what we were up against. The mall boasted an indoor ice rink, an aquarium, and a variety of expensive items such as a very real fossil of a brachiosaurus. We spent hours wandering through the mall but evidently, we realized that we would have to dedicate the whole day to explore every inch of the mall. So, grudgingly, we stepped outside into the hot arid sun and explored a massive water feature just below the Burj Khalifa that would completely transform into the world’s largest water show in the world. I could talk about this all day so to summarize the first day we completed the loop around the fountain and explored another massive food court (just about managing to avoid an aggressive perfume salesman) where we watched the water show from above. At this point, I could start to put together how this country managed to use such an excessive amount of water, from the huge water feature to the towering water jets but it would only get clearer what I would experience in just a few days.
But first, we would have to go back to the roots before the UAE even got rich. One very noticeable thing is that In Dubai and other cities, there are no old buildings and on the contrary, everything looks super pristine. This is because people used to live in tents, so the only remaining pre-historic buildings were either royal palaces or re-creations. When you hear royal palace, you would think of marble walls and gold-plated details, but in this country, they look a lot more primitive. However, if you were to look back and see what harsh environments they had to construct the palace, you can forgive the lack of detail. We also went to a re-creation of what a town would have looked like just a few generations ago. An interesting detail about these cities is that they all had an interesting chimney-shaped extrusion coming from the top which they used to cool down their homes. What they would do is hang wet clothes in the openings of the chimneys, and by doing so they cool the air which comes in contact, subsequently allowing the air to fall into the room below. This sort of idea has been implemented in many buildings even today and is considered an ingenious idea by many.
Going back to the present day, we were driving to the world’s second-largest mall to… ski. Traveling wouldn’t cut it so people decided to build an indoor ski resort inside a mall. I can not stress how bizarre this experience was and it goes to show just how crazy this country is. It goes to show that if people put their mind to it, they can achieve great feats but sadly, I don’t think this excessive use of materials can be replicated too much. The danger of Dubai is the risk of solely relying on everything being imported or man-made. This is putting lives at risk and is harming the environment. I feel that Dubai can be both a great and eye-opening example for many, to construct safer and environmentally friendly cities but to also chase more ambitious projects.