With year-round temperatures ranging from 66 to a scorching 115 Fahrenheit, Dubai may not be your first choice when considering a skiing vacation. Or even your last.
However, with the wealthy Arab emirate planning to build the world’s longest indoor run in the next few years, that could all change.
Not a city to do things by halves, or even three-quarters come to think of it, Dubai’s ski slope, complete with artificial snow, will run for a record-breaking 1200 meters. That’s 800 meters further than the current longest indoor slope, which, it won’t surprise you to learn, is also in Dubai.
The ski run is part of an ambitious plan (yet another one) by the emirate to build a $6.8-billion complex dubbed Meydan One. The finished site will feature the world’s tallest residential tower (711 meters/2,333 feet) incorporating the world’s highest observation deck, a fountain with water displays reaching up to 420 meters high (1,378 feet), a 350-room hotel, a “one of a kind” heritage village, a multi-purpose sports facility, a 300-meter-long beach (presumably well away from the chilly ski run) and, of course, an enormous shopping mall, because Dubai doesn’t have enough of those.
The development will provide enough housing for around 80,000 people, while the shopping mall will include a retractable roof that’ll open in the cooler winter months “to create an alfresco shopping and dining atmosphere,” according to Emirates247.
Meydan City Corporation chairman Saeed Humaid Al Tayer said the plan is to construct a “multi-use destination, which goes beyond expectations and will cater to every kind of person living and working here, as well as those who travel from around the world to visit.”
Some sections of Meydan One will be ready to open by 2020, when Dubai hosts the World Expo.
