It's amazing how news can be distorted nowadays! We received this email from someone very recently:

Subject: U.A.E. to Build $136 Million Human-Shaped Hotel

U.A.E. to Build $136 Million Human-Shaped Hotel, 7DAYS Reports 2007-01-11 02:21 (New York) By Zainab Fattah

Jan. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Dubai, United Arab Emirates, plans to build a skyscraper shaped as a traditionally-dressed Persian Gulf man to ``represent national culture and identity,'' the 7DAYS newspaper reported.


The 35-storey human-shaped "Burj Al Arabi" hotel, which will be built with a fabric dress, is expected to cost 500 million dirhams ($136 million), the newspaper said, citing Mohammed Al Syoufi, chairman of AAA Group, the project's developer.

Males in the Persian Gulf wear a white long cloak known as a dishdash, as well as a guthra, a headscarf fixed into place using a black rope known as egaal. Burj Al Arabi means ``Tower of the Arabian man.''

(7DAYS 1-11, 1)
For the Web sites of Middle East newspapers, see {WNME } --Editor: Schweizer.
Story illustration: Enter {TOP GULF } for news from the Middle East.

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The interesting thing is that this is actually a real story from 7Days but twisted to suit someone's bizarre idea...possibly just to contribute to the plethora of hoax emails circulating out there.

You can find the real Story from 7Days here: http://www.7days.ae/2007/01/11/oh-man-what-next.html#continueStory

More here from the UAE Newspaper Gulf News: http://archive.gulfnews.com/articles/07/01/10/10095732.html

The real deal with this story is the following (ref the Gulf News Article):

The structure will in fact be a 35-storey tower designed to resemble a man dressed in traditional Gulf Arab dress yet another remarkable landmark set to hit Dubai's skyline..."Burj Al Arabi is not intended to be the statute of a person, but symbolises a particular style of dress. It honours the religion, culture and language of the Arab people from a real estate perspective."...
Designed by Al Ajmani consultants, the Burj Al Arabi tower will have a total built area of 400,000 square feet, of which 350,000 square feet will be for freeehold commercial offices and the remainder will be for retail outlets, restaurants and parking. The "iqal" or peak of the tower may include a rotating restaurant and conference centre.

Please pass on the real story!!

tags: hoax, email, chain-mail, scam, burj-al-arabi, dubai, UAE, arabian, man, statue, tower, tower-of-the-arabian-man