Despite my prying, the Burj Al Arab’s management wouldn’t reveal its construction cost, but according to Forbes it was $1 billion (£800 million): hardly pocket change, even with the UAE’s vast wealth. It took just five years to build, two of which were spent creating the artificial island on which it sits – connected to the “mainland” by a bridge.
Up close, its 56-storey scale is almost too much to take in: you enter the lobby at the base of its 180-metre-tall atrium, the world’s largest for a hotel, with the “sail” soaring above you. I…
