Dubai World Trade Centre & Sheikh Rashid Tower
Why is it significant?
Conclude your journey before the historic white pre-cast concrete facade of Sheikh Rashid Tower at the Dubai World Trade Centre. Inaugurated in 1979 by Queen Elizabeth the Second and Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum, this thirty-nine-story tower was the very first skyscraper ever built in Dubai.
Key Facts
| Place | Dubai World Trade Centre & Sheikh Rashid Tower |
|---|---|
| Address | Sheikh Zayed Rd, Trade Centre 2, Dubai, UAE |
| Geo Coordinates | 25.22300, 55.28450 |
| Part of Walk | Dubai: DIFC Art, The Gate and the Museum of the Future |
| Generated | Generated |
Conclude your journey before the historic white pre-cast concrete facade of Sheikh Rashid Tower at the Dubai World Trade Centre. Inaugurated in 1979 by Queen Elizabeth the Second and Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum, this thirty-nine-story tower was the very first skyscraper ever built in Dubai. Standing 149 meters tall, it was the tallest building in the entire Middle East for nearly two decades, rising defiantly in what was then open desert scrubland. Its iconic silhouette was deemed so foundational to the birth of modern Dubai that it is permanently engraved on the back of the UAE 100-dirham banknote.
Designed by British architect John Harris, the tower is a masterwork of climate-conscious modernist architecture. Its deeply recessed windows are angled to block direct desert sunlight, while the exterior concrete panels act as structural sunshades that minimize interior solar heat gain. When critics initially scoffed that a thirty-nine-story tower in the desert was an unnecessary white elephant, Sheikh Rashid boldly predicted that the city would soon grow to surround it completely—a prophecy that came true tenfold.
The Dubai World Trade Centre became the primary catalyst for transforming Dubai into the international exhibition capital of the region. Today, the surrounding complex encompasses more than one million square feet of exhibition halls, hosting colossal global events like Gulfood and the GITEX technology summit. Standing here at the historic starting point of Sheikh Zayed Road, you can trace the entire arc of Dubai's transformation from a modest desert port to a futuristic global metropolis.
Examine the facade: the original pre-cast aggregate concrete panels were made with local desert sand and quartz gravel, giving the tower its distinctive, warm off-white tone.
This concludes our architectural journey through DIFC and the future monuments of Dubai; take the metro from the World Trade Centre Station or explore the nearby One Central plaza.