Dubai is on the south coast of the Persian Gulf. The rough latitude and longitude of Dubai are: 25ºN, 55ºE. Dubai has really come out as a city in the Middle East. In 1991 is was very dirty and not diverse. In 1996 oil was discovered. Now Dubai is one the most diverse places in the Middle East, as well as being a very developed city.
Dubai is home to the tallest man-made structure in the world named the "Burj Khalifa". The building itself cost USD $1.5 billion dollars. Construction started January 4 2004. The building opened January 6. The top antenna reaches to 2,722 ft tall and still stands today. There are 154 usable floors, 9 maintenance floors, 46 spire levels, and two under ground parking levels. The Burj Khalifa was built to diversify for an oil-based economy, and for Dubai to improve on international imprint. The main structure is made of reinforced concrete. The Burj Khalifa broke numerous height records making it a new tourist attraction for the rich and the regular. In the building there are 57 elevators and 8 escalators.
There are two reasons that I want to go to the Burj Khalifa.
The first reason is because I want to go to a country in the Middle East. I've only been to two countries other than the US. And in my entire lifetime I've only been of the continent twice. The first time I went off the continent is when I went to Turks and Caicos which is a part of Europe. The second time (I don't even know if this counts) I went to Maui, Hawaii. I think this should sorta count or at least count as like a half. Hawaii is 2,390 miles of the coast of California which is the closest to Hawaii you can get, so it's fairly far off and should count. So being able to not only get to get off the continent, but being able to go to a new and amazing place would be amazingly awesome.
The second reason is because I'd like to base jump off as high I can get on the Burj Khalifa. Base jumping is kind of like skydiving except you are jumping off a structure instead jumping out of a plane. Obviously you won't get nearly as much time in the air as you would skydiving because typical skydiving height is 12,000ft and the height of the Burj Khalifa (the tallest man-made structure) is only 2,700ft tall. But the trade off is that you get to see more stuff in higher detail than if you were skydiving. I've always been a curious little kid and wondered when I've been high up how fun it would be to fly through the air. And how much it would hurt to land. So I can't wait to base jump for the first time.
I got most of this information from Wikipedia.
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| This is a picture of the Burj Khalifa from ground level. Unfortunately I could not get the site name or url because it is a blocked website. |
Until next time Flies.
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