5.4 million square feet. 1,200 stores. 200 restaurants. A 10-million-litre aquarium viewable from the main corridor. A 100-metre indoor waterfall. An Olympic-size ice rink. The Dubai Fountain directly outside.

Built to make you lose track of time, and it succeeds completely. You arrived for one thing. You leave two hours later with dinner booked somewhere inside, having walked through a store by accident and found something you didn't know you needed. This is not a failure of planning. It is the design.