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Old Posted Mar 11, 2014, 12:24 PM
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Nightsky Nightsky is offline
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Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: Malmö
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FINANCIAL CENTER, SHEIKH ZAYED ROAD:

Sheikh Zayed Road is the main thouroughfare of Dubai, a 10-18 lane highway with a driverless, elevated metro in the middle. Along the Northern part, the largest cluster of supertall skyscrapers of Dubai is situated - the Financial Centre. It is bordered to the North by Bur Dubai (the old town) and to the South by New Downtown, where you find Burj Khalifa and Business Bay. New Downtown, Financial Centre and Business Bay is practically one large cluster, where all skyscrapers are situated along or close to Sheikh Zayed Road. Further to the South, Sheikh Zayed Rd passes between Dubai Marina and Jumeirah Lakes Towers, two clusters where you also can find some of Dubai's tallest skyscrapers. Just North of the Financial Centre, World Trade Center stood as the tallest in the Emirates between 1979 and 1999 (Burj Al Arab was completed then), and in 2000 the elegant Emirates Towers where completed. The Emirates Towers where the tallest buildings in Dubai and Middle East until 2009. Until the mid 2000s, these buildings were almost the only ones on a lonely desert road.

We were a bit unlucky with the weather, getting grey skies and even some rain during our photo session, nothing you would expect in Dubai! This area is often critisized for being dead and to lack street life, but to be honest it is pretty well planned; there are side streets parallel to the Sheikh Zayed highway on both sides, where you can find restaurants, cafés and stores.



The skyline of Dubai International Financial Centre, a cluster of tall skyscrapers along Sheikh Zayed Road. From the left: Emirates Towers, The Arch, The Index with Burj Khalifa behind, The Tower, Al Yaqoub Tower, Ahmed Abdul Rahim Al Attar Tower (u/c), Rose Tower.








Emirates Towers where completed in 2000 and consist of an office tower, a hotel tower with a rooftop bar that we visited and Emirates Towers Boulevard, an elegant but very empty shopping galleria.Today only Burj Khalifa and Almas Tower are talleer then the spire of the Emirates Towers hotel tower (354.6m, 56 floors), the hotel tower is a bit shorter. The complex, in silver aluminium and bronze glass, was designed by the Hong Kong architect Hazel Wong. The hotel is called Jumeirah Emirates Towers.










DIFC Gate, Dubai International Finance Centre's headquarters. This plaza just off Sheikh Zayed Road is unusually green for Dubai. It is 80m tall and was built in 2004 in a modernist arch of triump design, in glass and Italian granite.


Skyscraper cluster on the Northeast part of Sheikh Zayed Road, dominated by Al Yaqoub Tower and The Tower.






Emirates Towers Hotel - Looking down the glass elevator...


Financial Centre seen from Downtown: Part of the Index, Emirates Park Towers, Al Rostamani Maze Tower, Al Yaqoub Tower, The Tower, HHR Tower.


Seen from the North, dominated by the Telecom Tower.


From the South, with the metro track, Financial Centre to the left and JW Marriott and Burj Khalifa to the right


JW Marriott Marquis and Burj Khalifa.

http://www.worldtravelimages.net/Dubai_Sheikhzayed.html
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