Where can you spend more than $150 000 a square metre on real estate?
kangarooistan
10:00pm, ABC1 Sunday 15 November 2009
http://www.abc.net.au/compass/comingup.htm
Where can you spend more than $150 000 a square metre on real estate?
Not the Champs-Elysees in Paris, or New York, but Mecca. This film
shows the transformation of the holiest place in the Islamic world for
the largest annual pilgrimage on Earth.
Around three million Muslims from around the globe now converge on
Mecca during the 12th month of the Islamic calendar, Dhu al-Hijjah,
this year from 26 – 30 November.
This film looks at the monumental transformation of the holy city of
Mecca to cater for this booming pilgrimage business, and features a
rare interview with the Bin Laden Group, behind much of the new
development.
The city is a vast building site with luxury hotels, boutiques and
shopping malls transforming the landscape to cater for the massive
annual influx.
The Hajj is one of the five pillars of Islam. Every able-bodied Muslim
must undertake the pilgrimage to Mecca, at least once in their
lifetime if they can afford to do so.
The film shows the four ritual stages of the Hajj: to Mt Arafat,
Muzdalifah, Mina, and the Kaaba in Mecca, and shows blueprints for new
developments including a high speed rail connecting the sites.
By following the annual pilgrimage it also shows the traffic jams and
chaos, tight security, and shopping frenzies in Mecca’s mega malls,
replete with prayer rooms.
The Hajj generated more than $8 billion for the Saudi Arabian economy
in 2006.
In less than 20 years it’s expected religious tourism will outstrip
revenues from its oil reserves.
Visit Compass website.
http://www.abc.net.au/compass/comingup.htm