Downtown Dubai is recorded in this encyclopedia from the source named below.
Overview
Downtown Dubai or The Dubai Downtown is a large-scale, mixed-use complex in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. It was developed by the Emaar real estate development company. Before 2000, this area was called Umm Al Tarif. It is home to some of the city's most notable landmarks, including Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building; the Dubai Mall, the second-largest mall in the world and The Dubai Fountain, the world's largest choreographed fountain. It covers an area of 2 square kilometres (0.77 sq mi), at an estimated cost of US$20 billion (Dh73 billion) upon completion and, as of 2017, has a population of 13,201. The development is situated along Sheikh Zayed Road, across from Al Wasl locality on the northwest. It is bounded to the south by Business Bay and to the northeast by Financial Centre Road, which separates it from Zabeel and Trade Centre 2. At the heart of Downtown Dubai will be Emaar's famous development, the Burj Khalifa and the Dubai Mall, characterised by entertainment, shopping and dining. Arabic low-rise vernacular style of architecture is present in the Old Town, while high-rise contemporary buildings dominate the rest of the development. Downtown Dubai includes a range of high-end hotels such as Address Downtown, Vida Downtown, and Al Manzil Downtown, as well as attractions such as the Souk Al Bahar luxury Arabian market and a 3.5 km-long strip of restaurants and cafes on Sheikh Mohammad bin Rashid Boulevard. Souk Al Bahar has over 100 shops and over 20 restaurants, cafes, and lounges adjacent to the Dubai Fountains.
Source and reuse
The descriptive text above is drawn from the English-language encyclopedia article Downtown Dubai, reused under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike licence and attributed in the sources block on this page. Figures in the infobox come from Wikidata and carry that project's own provenance; they should be checked against the cited source before being relied on.
Editorial note
This record is a sourced summary, not original research. Where the underlying material is silent on a point, this article is silent too. Last reviewed 2026-09-23.