At the Edge of Sand and Sky

The visitor to the great cities of the Persian Gulf understands a little of what it must have been like to come from the provinces to Rome at the height of her power. Western cities in the late liberal-democratic era have a touch of the shoddy, the grimy—even in their monumental districts. But in the Gulf, the fantasy and pretense of Las Vegas become solid fact. Within these geometric marvels, these buildings shaped like waves, rock formations, or the heads of hooded falcons, everything is real. Thirty-foot arches of black marble, huge crystal chandeliers over opus sectile floors, high doors of brass or solid lacquered wood—there are no fakes.