in 1999 dubai put itself on the map with
what was then the world's tallest and
first ever seven star hotel
but that's now seen as a warm-up in the
years since the city has laid claim to
the world's largest mall largest
fountain twistiest tower longest airport
terminal longest urban zipline tallest
building world's largest acrylic panel
longest driverless metro system largest
picture frame tallest vertical maze
largest man-made island and highest
infinity pool and restaurant
it's taken the title of the world's
tallest hotel from itself four times has
more super tall skyscrapers than any
other city on earth and will soon be
home to the world's tallest observation
wheel
but taller further larger and higher has
all become a bit samey for the city and
the latest addition to its
record-breaking rap sheet goes in a
completely different direction
allowing divers to plunge 60 meters
below the surface dubai is now home to
the world's deepest pool
complete with a sunken city
go just beyond the southern edge of
downtown dubai and you'll find a strange
oyster-shaped building the home of deep
dive dubai
nodding to the country's pearl diving
history and covering an area of more
than 1500 square meters it houses
increasingly deeper pool levels all
culminating in a shaft that extends 18
stories below the surface
officially measuring 60.02 metres deep
and holding 14 million litres of water
the pool smashes the previous record set
by poland's 45 meter deep spot which
only held the title for seven months
after opening in december 2020
perhaps even more impressive is that all
that water is circulated through
siliceous volcanic rock and a nasa
developed filtration system every six
hours it's also treated with uv lights
and holds a temperature of 30 degrees
celsius for diver comfort all year round
to cool this simply a pool kind of
diminishes what lies beneath the surface
first there are two underwater habitats
where divers can explore and resurface
within underwater dry chambers at the 6
and 21 meter mark
not to exclude those overcome with a
fear of the deep the first 12 meters can
be viewed through a series of large
windows divers can wave to their friends
keeping dry on the other side
getting deeper into things the pool
starts to become a bit more
dubai the post-apocalyptic themed sunken
city depicts an abandoned world
there's an apartment and garage
connected by a flooded staircase and an
entire streetscape that increasingly
deteriorates the deeper you go
topping it all off or rather bottoming
it all out is a 20 meter deep plunge
shaft reserved for only the most
accomplished divers
normally only blue and green light
wavelengths can penetrate this deep but
wayfinding lights and speakers help
provide visibility the whole way down
there's also 56 underwater cameras
partly for safety but also for playing a
feed on screens around the building and
capturing the experience for divers to
take home once they resurface
speaking of resurfacing the facility
includes a hyperbaric chamber that can
be used to treat decompression sickness
for up to 10 people at a time
dubai is a city that likes to shout
about its achievements but it's got
there in part by keeping things under
wraps
developers ward off competitors by not
revealing the exact heights or in this
case depth of their projects until
they're pretty much finished
being much easier to hide away than say
the world's tallest building
construction of the pool went largely
unnoticed so much so that even one of
the world's most popular diving forums
failed to mention that it was even on
the horizon
when covering the opening of deep spot
back in 2020
your friend of mine told me i had to
check out this pool little was really
known about it until will smith posted
about his visit on instagram so details
about how it was constructed are thin
however when it comes to building a
record-breaking pool there are some
universal traits that they all have in
common
working from the top down the process is
essentially like constructing pools
within pools
as the first chamber is excavated and
lined with concrete it becomes the
launch point for the next chamber and
those chambers become progressively
smaller the deeper the pool goes all
culminating in the narrow dive shaft
due to the amount of pressure the shaft
will be under when the pool is filled
it's formed from a precast concrete tube
that's reinforced with a further 1.5
meters of concrete around it
the whole thing is designed to move and
settle in the ground once the weight of
the water is added
and divers are advised not to travel
more than 300 metres above sea level
within 24 hours of visiting
so don't book your trip up the burj
khalifa later in the day
[Music]
i think we we aspire to to do with deep
dive dubai is is make diving accessible
to all all visitors of the city or
residents in the city we we already have
a thriving diving community which we
hope to to grow and we hope for all of
them to call this this place home
the pool's not just a tourist attraction
it's also now the middle east's largest
underwater film studio complete with
edit suites and video galleries and a
global research site for divers to
develop their skills
[Music]
that's actually part of a wider trend
across dubai to further diversify the
city's economy and appeal beyond tourism
[Music]
of course it'll be a while before we can
see how effective that strategy is
in the meantime deep dive dubai will
remain the latest in a long line of
record-breaking construction projects
until the next one comes along
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