The Dubai Mall - The Largest Mall in the World by Area

The Dubai Mall is the world's largest shopping mall based on total area and sixth largest by gross leasable area. Located in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, it is part of the Burj Khalifa complex, the 20-billion-dollar project has 1,200 shops. Access to the mall is provided via Doha Street, rebuilt as a double-decker road in April 2009.

Twice delayed, Dubai Mall opened on November 4, 2008, with about 600 retailers, marking the world's largest-ever mall opening in retail history. However it is not the largest in gross leasable space, and is surpassed in that category by several malls including the South China Mall, which is the world's largest, Golden Resources Mall, SM City North Edsa, and SM Mall of Asia.

The Dubai Mall has recorded a visitor turn-out of more than 60,000 tickets sold for the Dubai Aquarium and Discovery Centre in the first five days, following its opening. The Dubai Mall has hosted over 3 million visitors over the month of April 2009, while the mall attracts more than 750,000 visitors every week.

Description

Over 12 million sq ft (equivalent in size to more than 50 soccer fields), the Dubai Mall has a total internal floor area of 5.9 million square feet (55 ha) and leasable space of 3.77 million square feet (35 ha), about same as West Edmonton Mall.

It surpasses the previously largest mall in the Middle East City Stars, which is located in Cairo, Egypt. With a gross area of over 8 million sq feet (74 ha), City Stars had been the largest mall in the Middle East since 2003.

The Dubai Mall has 10–15 distinct 'malls-within-a-mall', totaling 9 million ft² (84 ha) of shopping retail space (comprising of a total of 1200 stores, when fully operational). Featured attractions include: the world's largest Gold Souk with 220 retailers; the 850,000 sq ft (79,000 m2) Fashion Catwalk atrium; Fashion Island (Avenue), with 70 stores dedicated to haute couture; the Middle East's first Galeries Lafayette department store; Oasis Fountain Waterfall; and WaterFront Atrium. Other attractions include the region's first SEGA indoor theme park, SEGA Republic covering 76,000 sq ft (7,100 m2); KidZania, a 80,000 sq ft (7,400 m2) children's 'edu-tainment' centre; a 22-screen Cineplex, the largest in Dubai; and The Grove, an indoor-outdoor streetscape with fully retractable roof. It also features over 160 food and beverage options, 220 gold & jewellery outlets; a supermarket and an organic food mart. Among the shops is British toy store Hamley's, which opened a 32,000-square foot (3,000 m²) store that includes a replica of London's Regent Street, with the franchise owned by Retail Arabia.

Many shops, however, will remain shuttered for a long while to come. Bloomingdale's might open by 2010. It also has a 250-room luxury hotel, 22 cinema screens plus 120 restaurants and cafes. The Mall has over 14,000 parking spaces across 3 car parks, with valet services and a car locator ticketing system. The mall has won five awards - two awards at the Retail Future Project Awards at MAPIC, Cannes, in 2004, for Best Retail Development Scheme (Large) and Best Use of Lighting in a Retail Environment and the Dubai Mall brochure collected three awards at the Summit Creative Awards 2005 in Portland, Oregon - the Gold award for Best Art Direction / Graphic Design, Silver award for Best 4-colour B2B Brochure, and a Judges Special Recognition award.

Dubai Aquarium and Under Water Zoo

The Mall's Dubai Aquarium and Discovery Centre, developed and operated by Oceanis Australia Group, officially earned the Guinness World Record for the world's "Largest Acrylic Panel" (32.88 m wide × 8.3 m high × 750 mm thick and weighing 245,614 kg). The acrylic viewing panel is larger than Japan's Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium (22.5 m wide × 8.2 m high and 600 mm thick). Its 750 mm thick acrylic viewing panel can withstand pressure of 10 million litres of water used in the aquarium, but its transparency gives visitors clear views of over 33,000 marine animals on display.

Dubai Ice Rink

The Mall's Dubai Ice Rink multi-purpose venue, uses refrigeration plant technology by developing 1.5 inches (38 mm) of ice bed, almost 3 times the thickness of an NHL ice rink for Olympic-sized attraction. Dubai Ice Rink can host a capacity of up to 2,000 guests, when converted into a multi-functional hall with world-class multimedia system including a 20 m × 10 m LED screen. Operations Manager, Richard Rowlands, a 7 years Welsh figure skating pairs champion, described it: "Dubai Ice Rink in itself is an exciting facility, bringing the first-ever Olympic-sized ice rink to Dubai. A top-class facility offering the best of, including over 1,800 pairs of skates imported from a leading manufacturer in Italy to fit children and adults of all ages and sizes, the Dubai Ice Rink will host themed nights, Learn-to-Skate programmes, figure skating lessons and hockey matches.The advanced technology used at the Dubai Ice Rink ensures that the consistency of the ice-bed is maintained at all times. By incorporating the refrigerator technology of pushing in glycol through a network of pipes, and monitoring the cooling over a period of five to six days, the 38 mm ice-bed is tailored to withstand multiple activities in a safe environment.

10/29/2008

11/27/2007

Saint Michel Chapel

One of the oldest chapels in all of France.

But age is not what makes it special, but it’s placement, on an 85 meters-high volcanic spire. Christians have to walk up 268 steps carved in the small mountain, to reach the place where Joan of Arc’s mother Isabelle Romee supposedly came to pray once.

Saint Michel d’Aiguile was built in 962 in Le Puy-en-Velay, a beautiful little French town also popular for its Notre Dame cathedral and it looks like it’s watching over it from above. It is quite a sight to behold.

Crazy Russian Architecture

Wembley - The Most Expensive Stadium Ever Built

Wembley Stadium (usually shortened to just Wembley) is a stadium, located in Wembley Park in London, England. Primarily an association football venue, Wembley is owned by The Football Association (The FA) via its subsidiary Wembley National Stadium Limited, and hosts the home international matches of the England national football team and the main English domestic cup finals. The Stadium is also used for music concerts and other sporting events. Wembley will host the 2011 UEFA Champions League Final.

Wembley's 90,000 capacity makes it the second largest stadium in Europe (after Camp Nou) and one of the largest (and tallest) in the world with every seat under cover. It is one of the most expensive stadia ever built, costing close to £800 million (roughly US$1.57 billion). Immediately following its opening, it was often referred to as the "new Wembley Stadium" to distinguish it from the original stadium. The land has been used for football since as early as the 1880s.

The previous Wembley Stadium (originally known as the British Empire Exhibition Stadium or Empire Stadium) was one of the world's most famous football stadiums, being England's national stadium for football, and, because of the geographical origins of the game, was often referred to as "The Home of Football". It hosted the European Cup (now the UEFA Champions League) final a record five times, and is one of seventeen stadiums to have held a FIFA World Cup final. Though the original structure was closed in 2000, it was not demolished until 2003, after which construction began on the new stadium, originally intended to open in 2006. This was later delayed until early 2007. The final completion date of the stadium was 9 March 2007, when the stadium was handed over to the FA.

Structure:

• The stadium contains 2,618 toilets, more than any other venue in the world.
• The stadium has a circumference of 1 km (0.6 mi).
• At its peak, there were more than 3,500 construction workers on site.
• 4,000 separate piles form the foundations of the new stadium, the deepest of which is 35 m (115 ft).
• There are 56 km (35 miles) of heavy-duty power cables in the stadium.
• 90,000 m³ (120,000 cu yds) of concrete and 23,000 tonnes (25,000 short tons) of steel were used in the construction of the new stadium.
• The total length of the escalators is 400 m (¼ mi).
• The Wembley Arch has a cross-sectional diameter greater than that of a cross-channel Eurostar train.