- By : Mr. Sunil Kumar Bassi
- Date: 04-08-2015
- Views : 2005
- [Dorra, Djibouti]
Its coming: a hotel with 10,000 bedrooms, 70 restaurants, and four helipads perched atop its 45 floors. And its not in Las Vegas or Shanghai, but the holy city of Mecca. When it opens its giant gilded doors in 2017, the Abraj Kudai will become the largest hotel on Earth.
The Abraj Kudai is located in the Manafia district, just over a mile south of the Grand Mosque. Designed like a “traditional desert fortress”, the $3.5bn (Rs22,300 crore) five-star hotel, to be spread across 1.4 million sqm, will cater to affluent pilgrims to the holy city. The complex will have 12 towers emerging out of a 10-storey podium, with a bus station, a shopping mall, food courts, a conference centre and an extravagant ballroom. Five floors of the property will be reserved exclusively for the Saudi royal family.
The project is funded by the Saudi Arabian government and has been designed by real estate conglomerate Dar Al-Handasah. The firm has developed several big-ticket projects, including Concourse 3 at the Dubai International Airport, Development Golf City at Dubai World Centre, and the Anantra Palm Jumeirah and Tiara Residences, also in Dubai.
