feet Burj Khalifa in Dubai, of which 29
percent or 800 feet is unusable - which
would rank on its own as the 11th tallest
building in Europe.”15 But why? If
it doesn’t serve any meaningful function
and the cost is over a billion petrodollars,
what purpose does it have
to justify such a profligate amount?
Steve Watts, the chairman of CTBUH
surmises that the reason may be nothing
more than ego. He says, “There
can also be an ego element with these
things with developers wanting to go
higher than each other.”16 So, while
the numbers of building projects in
the Peninsular cities (including Qatar,
Dubai, etc.) rose with the increasing
demands of urbanization, many of the
tallest buildings were built in spite of it
by oil wealth.
The competition has been on between
several of the peninsular countries to
build the highest skyscraper to pierce
the clouds. The cost of each project,
like the Jeddah Tower and the Dubai
Creek Tower, is over a billion dollars
each, both of which were slated for
completion in 2020 until the Coronavirus
pandemic struck. Jason Gabel,
communications manager for CTBUH,
notes that many countries have
planned for building skyscrapers but
“The competitive situation we now
see between Saudi Arabia and the UAE
is very unique.”17 Both countries are
tapping into petro coffers to finance
these mega-towers though quantitively
speaking, UAE has already outdone
the desert giant in numbers. As one
article puts it, “Home to more than
65 high-rises over 656 feet (200m) tall
and counting, Dubai has become synonymous
with futuristic skyscrapers,
and has been a pioneer of this in the
Middle East.” It is not merely a matter
of coincidence that both countries are
putting up the tallest buildings at the
same time. The competition is cutthroat
as the headlines suggest:
One headline:
SAUDI ARABIA VS DUBAI: THE 2020
RACE FOR THE WORLD’S TALLEST
TOWER
CNN:
DUBAI AND SAUDI ARABIA TOWERS
IN TIME WAR TO BE WORLD’S
TALLEST
And Yahoo:
WATCH OUT, DUBAI: SAUDI ARABIA
IS BUILDING WORLD’S TALLEST
TOWER
1 Hitti, P. (1970). History of the Arabs, (pp. 23-24)
2 Roots of the ethnic slur that Arabs are camel
jockeys is based in true fact. Saudi Arabia has even
laid out Camel Jockey regulations such as the
Royal Decree M/964.
3 Lowey, M. (2020, January 22). Tales of the
Bedouin - Part I. https://www.aramcoexpats.com/
articles/tales-of-the-bedouin-part-i/
4 R. Montagne. La Civilisation, (p. 45)
5 Harrison, Paul. (1924). The Arab at Home. (p. 330)
6 Mansfield, Peter. (1976). The Arabs, (p. 14)
7 Al-Naimi, Ali (2016), Out of the Desert; My
Journey From Nomadic Bedouin to the Heart of
Global Oil, (p. 9)
8 Vassiliev, Alexel. (2000). The History of Saudi
Arabia, (p. 242)
9 Young, Arthur N. (1983), Saudi Arabia, (p.1)
10 Ibid, (p. 24)
11 Polk, W. (1982, January 31). Saudi Arabia: https://
www.washingtonpost.com/archive/entertainment/
books/1982/01/31/saudi-arabiafrom-bedouinsto
oil-barons/bef09597-7dd2-481c-9a85-
1041320e0a63/
12 https://www.osti.gov/biblio/6744917-new-arabsocial
order-study-social-impact-oil-wealth
13 Saudi Arabia - Urban Issues: UN-Habitat. https://
unhabitat.org/saudi-arabia-urban-issues
14 (Peterson, S. (1999, August 05). Arab power ebbs
and flows with oil prices. https://www.csmonitor.
com/1999/0805/p7s1.html)
15 Bill, T. (2013, September 05). UAE has the
world’s ‘vainest’ skyscrapers: Report. https://
www.reuters.com/article/us-uae-towersidUSBRE9840IF20130905)
16 Trinh, B. (2013, September 09). Oh Burj Khalifa,
You’re So Vain. https://www.huffingtonpost.
ca/2013/09/09/burj-khalifa-vainestbuilding_
n_3894341.html
17 CNN. (2019, March 04). Dubai and Saudi Arabia
towers in time war to be world’s tallest. https://
egyptindependent.com/dubai-and-saudi-arabiatowers
in-time-war-to-be-worlds-tallest/
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