21st Century Tower
In 2003 this 55-floor slab briefly held the title of world's tallest residential building — until Australia claimed the record twice over.
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A physical timestamp of Dubai's early vertical ambitions, the tower marks the moment the emirate began stacking residences into the sky. Its reign was short — Melbourne's Eureka Tower took the crown, then Gold Coast's Q1 — but the building still rises from Sheikh Zayed Road as a legible chapter in that race.
What to look for
- The AW Rostamani Group logo mounted at the very crown of the tower
- The 55-story profile seen from Sheikh Zayed Road, where the scale of the 2003 record becomes easy to imagine
Located along Sheikh Zayed Road; this is a residential tower with no public interior access.
21st Century Tower is one of 33 sights worth the detour in Dubai, all bundled offline in Voyage GO — download the Dubai pack and it sits on your map with no signal, filling your travel passport the moment you walk past.
More to see in Dubai
- Burj KhalifaHalf a mile of reinforced concrete, straight up — the tallest structure on Earth since 2009.
- Burj al-ArabA hotel shaped like a dhow sail, planted on its own man-made island 280 meters off the beach.
- Dubai MallIn 2023 it drew a record 105 million visitors — up 19 percent year-on-year from the 88 million recorded the year before.
- 23 MarinaFifty-seven swimming pools stacked into one tower — and since 2026, visible war damage on the skyline.
- Palm JumeirahSand and stone stacked on the Persian Gulf to form a palm shape — only legible from the air, and reportedly still sinking 5 mm every year.
- Rose Tower (Rose Rayhaan by Rotana)A 333-metre hotel on Sheikh Zayed Road that actually outreaches the Burj Al Arab — and most people walk past it.