Mall of Arabia

Mall of Arabia was a planned shopping mall intended to be one of the largest retail and entertainment complexes in Dubai, situated within the City of Arabia project in the Dubailand area.

The development was owned by the Ilyas & Mustafa Galadari Group and designed to offer a vast gross leasable area of around 10 million square feet with over 1,400 retail outlets, positioning it among the world's largest malls if completed.

The mall was also planned to include a rooftop hotel and a themed entertainment zone called Restless Planet, which was envisioned as a large-scale edutainment experience featuring animatronic dinosaurs and immersive rides tied to prehistoric themes.

The project was initially scheduled for completion in 2008 but was put on hold indefinitely following the global financial crisis that year, which impacted many large-scale developments in Dubai.

Despite announcements in 2016 suggesting that the project might be revived within a decade, as of 2025, the mall remains incomplete, with much of the City of Arabia development still unrealized.

The City of Arabia master plan also includes waterfront communities, residential towers, and a range of other commercial and recreational facilities, but progress has been slow and limited mainly to other components such as IMG Worlds of Adventure, a large indoor theme park.

Mall of Arabia's ambitious vision was to offer a unique retail and lifestyle resort experience within DubaiLand, but economic challenges have curtailed its realization. It remains a notable example of Dubai's plans for mega-development projects that reflect the city's aspirations for tourism and entertainment, albeit delayed and downsized in execution.

The site and master plan continue to hold interest for potential future development as part of the larger Dubailand area.