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Curzon
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Curzon

Date

January 4th, 2010

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Curzon at the Burj Opening

I just got back from the public opening of the Burj Dubai Burj Khalifa. It turns out that today, the tower was renamed, taking the name of the current president of the UAE and emir of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed, who spent the past year bailing out Dubai for its excessive international debts. In other news, my neighborhood, Downtown Burj Dubai, was renamed Downtown Burj Khalifa—clearly Dubai realizes how to submit, at least nominally and trivially, to its new lords and masters.

The final height was announced to be 828 meters, notably higher than previously reported. Some pictures from the event appear below.


The Burj several hours before the opening ceremony.



Balloons in the colors of the UAE national flag float away from the Burj past The Address Hotel.


The famous fountains dancing a special medley to orchestra music.


Lights and lasers shoot around the tower as smoke flows out of all balconies…


Fireworks erupt from the Burj.


Fireworks erupt from the Burj as the fountains play once again.

Comments to this entry

Chris Swanson
January 4, 2010
7:33 pm
Very nice pics! Damn impressive building, too. It's a shame that Phoenix, where I live, has no really distinct buildings like this.
Admiral
January 4, 2010
8:24 pm
Pretty awesome, Curzon.
Alfred Russel Wallace
January 4, 2010
10:37 pm
AWESOME!! Great pictures!!
Munro Ferguson
January 4, 2010
11:31 pm
You should brush up that last photo in Photoshop and send off to National Geographic. It'd be a contender for their monthly readers series. Timing and composition are excellent. Funny I'd been thinking (and forgetting!) all week to ask you if you were going to cover this. Of course it'd have been about as obvious an inquiry as "do you intend to breath in the next hour or so?"

To give a sense of scale how far away from the Burj would you say that first photo was snapped?
Odds & Ends, Jan 5, 2010 | The Marmot's Hole
January 5, 2010
4:52 am
[...] Curzon was at the grand opening of the (Samsung C&T-built) Burj Dubai… and he’s got the photos to prove it! [...]
Curzon
January 5, 2010
6:14 am
Munro, where would I do that? Link?

For scale, see this link: http://tinyurl.com/burjphotos
Green pins are the Burj and the Address Hotel.
Purple pin is where I took the first photo.
Light Blue pin is where I took the photo of the fountains and fireworks.
Red pin is where I took the picture of the Address and the balloons.

Unfortunately the satellite photo is several years old, so the place looks like a giant sand construction pit. While that is what most of Dubai looks like, the so-called "Downtown" area is basically finished and pretty amazing.
Munro Ferguson
January 5, 2010
9:59 pm
CZ link
Tweets that mention ComingAnarchy.com » Curzon at the Burj Opening -- Topsy.com
January 6, 2010
12:28 am
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Andrew Ducker, ajbpearce. ajbpearce said: Thing about criminals who live like God’s just keeping their chairs warm is that, well, they know how to put on a show: http://bit.ly/7xuxwg [...]
Joe
January 7, 2010
6:31 am
When I realized that it 800 meters is half a mile high, I can't help but be even more amazed.