Inside an abandoned 'haunted' palace in Dubai whose wealthy sheikh owner was driven out by 'evil spirits' after just ONE NIGHT
Home to flying furniture, the faces of children stuck in windows, objects going missing, this is said to be the most haunted palace in the world.
Ras al KhaimahThe Al Qasimi Jinn Palace had been rotting and falling into disrepair for more than 30 years, after Sheikh Abdulaziz bin Humaid Al Qasimi and his family fled from it in panic – having moved on the same day.
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Adorned with marble floors, glass chandeliers and multiple works of art, the four-story, 35-bedroom palace was meticulously sculpted over fifteen years with the sheikh in mind.
When it was completed in 1985, it was estimated to be worth AED 500 million, or £107 million, which would have been a whopping £317 million today.
Legend has it that on the day the sheikh moved in, he was confronted with furniture flying across the room, faces appearing on windows and walls, and objects inexplicably going missing.
He immediately fled, believing that supernatural spirits roamed the halls.
The theory goes that “jinn”, evil spirits, hate development and therefore inhabit abandoned places.
The palace's paranormal reputation continues and although it was uninhabited for decades, thrill seekers traveled from all over the world to visit.
One of those thrill seekers, Anjaly Thomas, heard stories of occasional screams coming from the palace.
After years of disuse, there were footprints in the dust, broken glass everywhere, broken statues and overturned furniture.
Portraits of menacing girls seemed to follow Anjaly's every move, the furniture became increasingly erratic, and then there was the basement – where the word 'gooooo' was written in blood red on the walls.
Besides thrill seekers, holy men also came to the palace and promised to pray away the unwanted spirits.
They removed the eyes of the menacing girls, men and animals that decorated the walls – because they thought it was the image of living forms that attracted the jinn.
The palace lay unused and slowly fell apart for decades, until it finally got a new owner a few years ago.
Tareq Al Sharhan, the new owner, wants people to see the palace as it was originally intended: a special, artistic, beautiful place.
“In the 1980s this was something very special,” he told local media.
“I thought I could change its story into something better, something cultural, something for tourists.”
After years of negotiating and trying to reach a contract, the restoration process took only six months.
Now visitors to the formerly abandoned palace can expect to see the entire four flours in all their original (and less spooky) glory.
The 35 rooms have had expensive paintings and sculptures returned, the 40 crystal chandeliers have been restored, Moroccan wall tiles have been repainted and re-pasted, and antiques from all over the world.
Although Al Sharhan would not reveal how much the palace cost him, he said the price was worth it.
Since the palace's grand reopening, it has become one of the most popular tourist destinations in Ras Al Khaimah.
There are plans to renovate it further, which has led to some speculation that the public might be able to stay in one of the palace's rooms in the future.
Just a few kilometers away, hundreds of deserted islands lie eerily by Dubai's coast.
Built at the staggering cost of £10 billion, the design was intended to look from the air like the five continents of the world, split into individual islands representing each country.
But the World Islands Project left Dubai with the expensive reminder that some ideas are simply too big to realize.
The financial problems that took over the world in 2008 severely damaged the economy United Arab Emirates economy – especially the real estate sector.
An estimated £300 billion worth of projects had to be scaled back, suspended or cancelled.
While the tallest building in the world was also recently abandoned – after ten years of work.
Billionaire investor Prince Alwaleed Bin Tala's one kilometer high tower Saudi Arabia came to an abrupt halt amid a power play between the very wealthy.
He was reported to be evasive over claims that he paid $6 billion to secure his release.
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