Dubai tower reaches for the sky

[cnn-photo-caption image=http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2010/TRAVEL/01/04/dubai.skyscraper/smlvid.burj.gi.jpg width=300 height=169]

Jim Kavanagh
CNN

Things are looking up in Dubai. Way, way up.

The Arab emirate's colossal, multibillion-dollar skyscraper, Burj Dubai, opens for business Monday, stretching 168 stories and 2,684 feet into the desert sky.

The "At the Top" observation deck, at the 123rd floor, isn't really at the top, but it's plenty high enough.

"No question, the tower is going to be a huge draw for people who want to get up there," said George Efstathiou, Burj Dubai's lead architect and managing partner for the Chicago, Illinois, architecture firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill.

Burj Dubai boasts a towering list of superlatives:

• World's tallest building

• World's tallest free-standing structure

• World's highest occupied floor

• World's highest outdoor observation deck

• World's longest-traveling elevator (1,640 feet, traveled in two minutes)

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