Dubai is a city of superlatives. World’s tallest this, largest indoor that. It’s the kind of place that seems designed to produce a particular kind of photograph, the kind that leaves viewers incredulous. “It can’t be real,” they say, convinced that such a place can only be the product of filters and photographic trickery. But no photographic sleight of hand is necessary for one of the most spectacular views I have ever seen.
At the Edge of the World
The infinity pool on the 77th level of the Address Beach Resort in Dubai is just that kind of photograph. I might question it myself if it were not my own work. The pool currently holds the Guinness World Record as the world’s highest outdoor infinity pool, perched 293.9 meters above sea level. For the moment, at least, no other infinity pool occupies a spot closer to the sky. The pool’s surface area covers roughly 560 square meters, which gives it the somewhat unsettling appearance, from above, of a lake somehow suspended in the sky.
A Precarious Spot – the Address Beach Resort
We went up to the roof after dark and stayed there until after sunrise the next morning. Seeing the sun come up over Dubai and the Arabian Gulf from that vantage point was an incredible experience, if somewhat frightening. The wind at that level was fierce and because I managed to wedge myself and my equipment in between the pool and the glass wall (a space normally off-limits to everyone but workers who are cleaning the pool or the glass panels), my work that morning felt especially vertiginous.
What is not immediately clear in the photograph is that the building is actually twin 77-storey towers, each tower forming an ellipse, with a void in the center to allow maximum sunlight as well as views of the Palm Jumeirah and the horizon beyond. The towers are connected at their base and by a skybridge situated between the 63rd and 77th floors. The infinity pool is situated at the very edge of the bridge on the 77th level, with its water seemingly vanishing into the open sky and the Arabian Gulf beyond it. The view is as breathtaking as it is terrifying.
I could be cynical about a place, like so much of Dubai itself, that was designed for spectacle. I’m vaguely reminded of Las Vegas, another glittering, fantastical creation conjured from the desert. But perched so far above the city and with only glass panels between me and open air, I didn’t feel cynicism. I felt genuine awe. Awe at the natural beauty of this sliver of the Arabian Peninsula and awe at the remarkable ability of humans to create something that appears to defy gravity.
The pool is adults-only and visitors to Dubai who are not staying at Address Beach Resort can access it through bookable day packages.
