BURJ KHALIFA

Stack 2.53 Eiffel Towers and you have the Burj Khalifa! For more than 10 years, this tower has dominated the capital of the small emirate. A vertical city where 10 000 people live. Commissioned by the Emaar group and designed by the Americans from Skidmore, Owings & Merrill on a Y-shaped plan inspired by the bulb of Hymenocallis, a desert flower, the glass and aluminum tower was inaugurated on January 4, 2010 after (only) 1,325 days of work at the rate of one floor per week. It took 12,000 workers a day to achieve this. Its 160 floors and spire reach 828 meters, the current world record for the tallest skyscraper, and can be seen from over 95 kilometers away. There is a 6 degree difference between the top and the bottom. Be warned, it is very difficult to get it into the viewfinder of a camera. From below, it is beautiful, slender, dizzying, just a marvel of balance and architectural genius. From above, that is to say from the observation platforms on the 124th, 125th and 148th floors at 452, 456 and 555 meters, it seems almost fragile, as it is narrow, and allows, in case of clear weather, to observe more than 95 km in the round. Who lives there? From the ground to the 39th floor, Armani clients, up to the 108th floor, tenants of some thousand apartments, and then executives deserving of the adjective "superior". On 122nd, a restaurant. Some of the figures are dizzying, such as the 26,000 windows or the more than 946,000 liters of water needed every day to operate the air conditioning system, which is achieved by installing water tanks on every 30 floors. From the condensation caused by this and the humid heat of the city, they manage to recover about 55 million liters, the volume of 20 Olympic swimming pools, and use it to water the gardens below. As for security, islands are installed every 25 floors or so in case of fire, equipped with air conditioning and armored doors. These are also alarms that go off and prevent the inhabitants from going out on their balconies if the wind becomes too strong. Underneath, 192 concrete pillars, 50 meters high and 1.40 meters in diameter, had to be poured to support the entire 500,000-ton heavy structure, the weight of 100,000 elephants. As for the windows, more than 24,300 had to be ordered, the outer layer of which contains silver to reflect the light and the interior of titanium to better insulate against heat. These two materials also make it possible, at the end of the afternoon, when the sun is about to set, to admire it all silver, as if it were illuminated from the inside. This is when it becomes sublime. Regularly ranked in pole position on the web, At The Top is the most popular activity in Dubai, quite sensational it must be admitted, and definitely unique. Is it necessary to make this expensive visit? Yes, because the feeling of being on the highest public balcony in the world is quite exhilarating, and on a clear day the aerial view is unforgettable (at night, the altitude and distances are overwhelming, but the lights of the city are enchanting). No, if you don't like crowds, long queues and if you are claustrophobic or prone to vertigo, the direct elevator from 0 to 124 is a form of ordeal, because you go up (or down) one floor per second, even if the spectacular effects of the sound and light reduce this impression of confinement. At 124, we are already at 452 meters of altitude, which is high enough to have a global view of the city, the articulation of the districts, the coastline... This strange feeling of a Lilliputian city spread out there, like a construction kit. For twice the price, we are a few meters higher, on the 126th floor and its 360-degree circular deck, an intermediary step to access the elevator leading to the VIP floor: the 148th floor, the highest observation platform in the world at 555 meters, thirst-quenching drinks, small fours, subdued lounges, a luxury boutique, refined floral arrangements, and clear perspectives without the clutter of the most visited floor.

In case of a problem, you should know that there are security stations and about 50 elevators. And if you wanted to take the stairs, you would have to go back down the 2,909 steps! Eco-friendly friends, note that it takes the climate equivalent of 10,000 tons of ice per day to cool the steel lily. With just a few sips of water and a lot of bravery, Alain Robert, the "French Spiderman", entered the Guinness Book of Records in March 2011 by successfully completing the climb in 6 hours. The same year, it was also immortalized in Mission Impossible with Tom Cruise running, jumping and climbing along the windows. At the end of the year, more than a million visitors flock to see the breathtaking fireworks that seem to set the Burj Khalifa on fire. The name Khalifa was given to the Burj Khalifa as a tribute to the current President of the Emirates, Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Ruler of Abu Dhabi. If you can't climb it, we recommend that you walk around it via Sheikh Mohammed Boulevard, which circles it, and have a drink by the fountains. In a flat landscape, the Burj Khalifa has become a real beacon for the city, the emblem of a vernacular Dubai, in short a modern day Tower of Babel. A little advice: avoid going up just before sunset to take advantage of a better light and to distinguish the skyscrapers well.