Dubai, United Arab Emirates - When work began in 2004 to build the tallest tower in the world, Dubai, confidence was through the roof with a series of mega-projects on the drawing board or the increase of the sand. This arrogance seems positively old school in those days. Has been hampered by a debt crisis that has humbled the leaders in Dubai and tested the weak city-boom years of the state - leaving the 4th January planned opening of the iconic Burj Dubai with a double meaning hello and goodbye.

It will be a debutante party, for a monument and a farewell toast at the age of excess Dubai. Burj Dubai - a steel and glass needle up more than half mile (800 meters) - could be the last completed work one time in Dubai by giants. Most of the other super-pending projects announced in recent years as a palm-shaped island's second tower or surpass Burj Dubai, is Roadkill recession or are considering a much smaller scale.