The developer says the tower is billed as a "vertical city" of luxury apartments and offices. But the gleaming glass-and-metal tower, has now been renamed "Burj Khalifa", after Abu Dhabi's leader. Dubai's neighboring oil-rich sheikdom came to its rescue during the financial meltdown. It provided direct and indirect injections of cash totaling 25 billion US dollars.

With the reality that thousands of jobs have been lost and projects worth billions of dollars have been either cancelled or delayed, it remains to be seen whether the so-called "desert flower" can bloom as gracefully as its developers hope.