The grandest of them all
The Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque holds a number of world records, supporting the world’s largest dome (32.7 metres in diameter), displaying the world’s largest chandelier (10 metres in diameter, 15 metres in height) and housing the world’s largest carpet. The latter covers an area of 5,627 square metres, weighs 47 tonnes and was knitted together by 1,200 weavers. The mosque holds 40,000 worshippers, contains 1,096 pillars and 82 gold-topped domes. A staff of 20 men read verses from the Holy Book over Sheikh Zayed’s tomb, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. While the mosque itself is the largest in the UAE, it is not (as many assume) the largest in the world. That honour goes to the Sacred Mosque in Mecca, Saudi Arabia.
Bet you didn’t know…
The 5,056 glass panels that make up the outer shell of Yas Hotel are looked after by a team of 15 abseiling window-cleaners. It takes them one month to clean the whole exterior.
Emirates Palace houses 1,002 chandeliers, the heaviest of which weighs 2.5 tonnes.
Garfield, the grumpy cat popular in the 1980s, frequently shipped his nemesis Nermal to Abu Dhabi for no obvious reason. ‘Abu Dhabi is where all the cute kittens go’ was a regularly used phrase. We know not why it ceased to be so.
The biggest pile up recorded in the UAE took place near Ghantoot on March 11, 2008, at approximately 6.40am. Reports suggested that as many as 250 cars collided killing four people and injuring more than 300. The incident, caused by low visibility in fog, is now known as Fog Tuesday.
The first McDonald’s opened in Abu Dhabi in 1995. Long-time expats recall the opening as a red carpet affair, such was the expectation.
With approximately 2,500 living along our coastline, Abu Dhabi has the world’s second most populous school of sea cows
(dugongs, to more scientific minds).
The Kingdom is probably the best-known feature film made in Abu Dhabi. Emirates Palace makes regular appearances, as does Mussafah (doubling up for suburban Riyadh). Our favourite is the sighting of Airport Road’s Adnoc, clearly visible one hour four seconds in.
Four for the future
The city’s skyline is erupting. We’re particularly taken with…
HQ
Due to open in May, ‘HQ’ has already won a handful of architectural awards, including Best Futuristic Design (Building Exchange Conference, 2008). Fancy the hippest
office in the city? They tell us they still have vacancies.
The Wing
The strangely shaped wave of white at the end of the corniche is intended to be an F1-themed visitor centre and home to a collection of top-drawer eateries. Its design is supposed to emulate the front end of an F1 car.
Bridgeway
Located on Airport Road, next to Zayed Sports City, this oceanic vision in turquoise and blue will house a Rocco Forte Hotel, a shopping mall and a business centre. Completion is expected before the summer.
Capital Gate
‘The Leaning Tower of Abu Dhabi’ is destined to become a 160 metre tall Hyatt Hotel. Completion is expected by the end of this year. It leans westward at an incline of 18 degrees – 14 degrees more severe than the Leaning Tower of Pisa. The world’s most squinty building is currently the Leaning Tower of Suurhusen (Germany), which leans at five degrees to the vertical. There is some debate as to whether the Leaning Tower of Abu Dhabi qualifies for the record, as it is intentionally leaning, whereas the others are unintentional. We know where our loyalties lie.
Online polls
City’s best shwarma
The best shawarma shop in the capital? Our readers said…
2%
Zawak Al Sham
12%
Al Safadi
19%
Maroush
19%
Automatic
46%
Lebanese Flower
Three published songs that feature the words ‘Abu Dhabi’
Billy Bragg
Last Flight to Abu Dhabi
The story of Jonty, a greedy banker who finds his way to Abu Dhabi and imminent wealth. Not a Bragg classic by any stretch of the imagination.
Split Enz
Abu Dhabi
New Zealand’s Split Enz featured the brothers Finn, later to find fame in Crowded House. The track finds oil barons and Westerners heading to Abu Dhabi and imminent wealth. Sound familiar?
Leningrad Cowboys
Abu Dhabi
Leningrad Cowboys are a ‘humorous’ band from Finland. Note our use of inverted commas. As far as we can make out, their tribute focuses on the life of a gentleman who works in a ‘camel rodeo’.
Money matters
The world’s most expensive licence plate sold on February 16, 2008, at Emirates Palace. Bearing the single digit, 1, the plate sold for Dhs52.2 million (approximately US$14.3 million).
Most Costly Dish
The most expensive dish in the city, 30 grams of Royal Beluga Caviar at Sayad restaurant, Emirates Palace, will set you back Dhs1,850 (plus taxes).
Big Budgets
Abu Dhabi is the world’s second most expensive city for travellers, beating New York and London. In terms of hotel rates, Moscow was only US$70 more expensive on average. Let’s do better next year…
Big Ticket Bubbly
The city’s most expensive bottle of champagne is the Salon Blanc de Blanc 1995 vintage, also at Sayad, which will chip Dhs21,250 off your bank balance.
Suite!
The Palace Suite at Emirates Palace (Dhs55,000 per night; approximately US$15,000), Yas Hotel has a suite with 28 rooms (plus two private elevators) that can only be priced on application. The bill depends entirely on how many butlers, chefs and attendants you’ll require.
Richest City?
Abu Dhabi emirate has the highest GDP per capita, and its 420,000 native citizens have a net worth of US$17 million dollars per head, making it the richest citizenship on earth.
Big gigs
The largest gig in UAE history took place on Friday, October 30, 2009. According to Flash Entertainment, 85,861 people were counted onto the corniche to watch Raghab Alama and Timberland take the stage.
You also crowded venues across the city to see:
Aerosmith (approximately 45,000)
Womad, 2009 (Friday night – 31,771)
George Michael and
Alicia Keyes (24,500)
Coldplay (15,000)
Old stuff
Archaeological finds around Jebel Hafeet, Al Ain, date the settlement back before the time of the Great Pyramid of Cheops.
In 1967, the Al Ain Palace Hotel (on Abu Dhabi’s corniche) first opened its doors to travellers in the region, making it the oldest hotel still standing.
The oldest animal at Al Ain Wildlife Park and Resort is a 41-year-old nameless saltwater crocodile. They also have a 12-year-old albino python.
The oldest school in the region is believed to be the Al Nahyaniyah School in Al Ain, which opened in 1959. The school was opened at the behest of the late Sheikh Zayed, who also donated land to the city’s first international school, the British School Al Khubairat, established in
January 1968.
Qasr Al Hosn, the former royal palace currently undergoing redevelopment next door to the Cultural Foundation, is approximately 250 years old, making it the oldest building in the city.
Birth of a nation
The key meeting between Sheikh Zayed and Sheikh Rashid that led to the formation of the UAE took place at Semeih, not far from Ghantoot (halfway between Abu Dhabi and Dubai). They met on February 18, 1968, shortly after the Brits announced their intention to leave the Gulf, thus making the Trucial States independent. The exact location is hard to find as there is currently no monument to the occasion.
Online polls Louvre Vs Guggenheim
Which gallery are you most looking forward to visiting? Our readers said..
Louvre 65%
Guggenheim 34%
Online polls entertainment
What events would YOU like more of in Abu Dhabi? Our readers said…
Art 11%
Food 4%
Child-friendly 14%
Sport 5%
Clubbing 13%
Live music 49%
Famous footballers
Three legends who have played for Al Jazira.
Philip Cocu
The Dutch midfielder joined Al Jazira in August 2007. He stayed for a year, appearing in 17 games and scored four goals.
Paul Gascoigne
Gazza joined Al Jazira in August 2003, hoping to play in 40 matches. His debut was scheduled for October. It never took place.
George Weah
Weah, former World Player of the Year, came to Abu Dhabi in 2001, making only eight appearances but finding the net a whopping 13 times.
Top four most visited tourist attractions
The corniche
The city’s shopping malls
Emirates Palace
Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque
Size matters
Ferrari World Abu Dhabi, when it opens (rumoured to be around October), will be the world’s largest indoor theme park, with a roof spanning 200,000 square metres.
The world’s fastest roller coaster, which will make a fool of anything slower than 200km per hour, is due to open at Ferrari World after the summer.
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority Tower on the corniche reaches 185 metres in height. Come 2011, however, the tallest will be The Landmark, intended to stand at 324 metres.
Contrary to popular belief, the flagpole that stands on Breakwater, opposite the corniche, is not the world’s tallest. At 122 metres, it falls short of the Ashgabat Flagpole (Turkmenistan; 133 metres) and dras with the Aqaba Flagpole (Jordan; 122 metres).
A five metre-high replica of a 50s Dodge Power Wagon, custom built in Abu Dhabi to a scale of 64:1, takes pride of place at the ‘Rainbow Sheikh’s’ car museum, just outside Abu Dhabi. Its wheels came from an oil rig transporter, its wipers from an ocean liner. Inside is a full apartment with bedrooms, bathrooms, a meeting area and a kitchen. Incredibly it can actually drive – it had to in order to officially become the world’s largest car.
Dhabi data
The hottest temperatures in the emirate are regularly recorded in Al Ain, where the recordhigh is currently 52°C.
The emirate sits on approximately eight per cent of the world’s oil reserves, and has the fifth largest natural gas reserve on earth. It produces approximately 2.5 million barrels of oil each day.
Where we live
Urban Abu Dhabi
817,421
Rural Abu Dhabi
212,168
Urban Al Ain
382,742
Rural Al Ain
184,609
Al Gharbia
138,085
Islands
15,136
The UAE has the world’s largest per capita carbon footprint, which Abu Dhabi hopes to combat by building the world’s first carbon neutral city – Masdar City – at an estimated cost of Dhs81 billion (US$22 billion dollars).
Abu Dhabi city contains roughly 150 mosques, with more than 2,500 across the emirate as a whole. Since the mosques are designed so they face Mecca, most of them sit at angles to the city’s grid pattern.
While 70 per cent of Abu Dhabi emirate is desert, it also contains over 200 islands.
Roughly 80% of the population is expatriate.
