Dubai: Dubai, the Gulf state best known for its extravagant projects and scorching temperatures, announced yesterday it would build the world’s largest indoor ski resort, with a 1.2-kilometre run.
Dubai’s current indoor ski resort, opened in 2005 in the Mall of the Emirates, remains the largest in the world, according to the Guinness World Records website, boasting a 400-metre (yard) slope.
The slope runs year-round, despite summer temperatures in Dubai that can top 45 degrees Celsius.
The new covered ski resort comes as part of a scheme dubbed Meydan One, also to include the world’s tallest residential tower at 711 metres (2,333 feet), a dancing fountain sweeping up to 420 meters (1,378 feet), a vast shopping centre, a 350-room hotel and a marina, according to a government statement.
Estimated to cost of up to Dh25bn ($6.8bn), the project is to extend from the Meydan race track in the emirate’s desert to Burj Khalifa, the world’s highest tower, reported Dubai daily Al-Bayan.
“In a city which never stops innovating, today’s announcement is significant for the future of Dubai and the UAE,” Meydan chairman Saeed Al Tayer was quoted as saying in The National. AFP
