Dubai (CNN) -- The United Arab Emirates is no stranger to superlatives: the world's tallest building, among the world's most expensive hotels, even the largest kebab.
The country has more than 100 world records to its name, so it's little wonder that Guinness has decided to open an office in Dubai next year to make it easier for people and businesses in the region to have their attempts certified.
Talal Omar, the head of Guinness's Dubai office, says the region has seen huge growth in recent years. "In the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, we've seen an increase of 300 to 400% in the number of applications over the past five years. The aim of this office is to make it easier, to make it quicker for people and businesses all across the region to access and achieve world records," he told CNN.
Students in the Philippines released 15,185 sky lanterns to set a record for the most number of lanterns flown simultaneously. The attempt took place on the football field of the University of the Philippines Visayas in Miag-ao town, Iloilo province, on May 24, 2013.
Guinness World Records: Attempts and wins
Guinness records: Huge biceps, tall dog
Conan meets the 'Paper Airplane Guy'
See the largest snowball fight ever
There have been several this year alone: the largest handprint in Kuwait, the longest table in Dubai or the most people to parachute-jump from a hot-air balloon.
Omar has overseen more than 300 records across the world, and relocated from London to Dubai just to cope with the new demand in the Middle East.
He says any record attempt must meet four criteria to even be considered:
1) It must be measureable -- longest, heaviest, fastest etc
2) It must be verifiable, that is to say you must provide evidence to prove it
3) The record must be breakable, in other words it can be challenged in the future
4) The record must have one single variable: you cannot have the longest, fastest marathon, they'll either measure the longest or the fastest.
Alastair Richards, president of Guinness World Records, says the organization is moving with the times in a bid to attract younger readers. "We've got a website and of course it's got the news daily as to what records are being broken around the world," he said. "It also as a website will give you a link to our YouTube site, Facebook, Twitter. There's also a section of the website where you can video yourself on let's say your mobile phone doing something you think is really cool that you think should be a Guinness World Record but as far as you know it's not at the moment.
"So this is really going after and encouraging the sort of 14 to 24-year-old boys and girls to have a go at record breaking, which is all about self-esteem and self-worth but that's a bigger question as to why Guinness World Records still exists after 56 years.
"So the website for instance now gets 1 million unique visitors a month, the vast majority of which are all about, they're looking at records and they're making record inquiries or they're enquiring about record claims."
"The Guinness World Records is about the amazing superlatives that make up our physical world or our universe but at the heart of it is just about human beings and it's a measure as to how unique and amazing each and everyone of us is. So in that sense we reflect society. So lots of who's got the most fans on Facebook, who's got the most Twitter followers or who's been tweeted the most in 24 hours. So for example, President Barack Obama when he gets four more years, that got retweeted some 770,000 times, within 24 hours, it's that type of record now that is probably the most popular."
Here are some recent records that have been set in the Middle East
• The greatest distance covered in 24 hours in a motorized wheelchair. Haidar Talib, an Emirati travelled the 141km from Masdar City to Al Thiqa Club for Handicapped in Sharjah in 14 hours, 28 seconds on a solar-powered wheelchair.
• The world's biggest kebab, weighing 468kg, was made by Doner Restaurant on Jumeirah Beach Road in 2012
• The longest line of sandwiches, measuring 2,667.13 meters, was created by Kraft Foods Middle East and Africa in September 2010.
• The world's heaviest gold ring, the Najmat Taiba ("Star of Taiba") was created by Taiba for Gold and Jewellery of Saudi Arabia at the Old Gold Souq in Deira in April 2009. The ring, weighing 63.856 kilograms, consisted of 5.17kg of precious jewels set in a 58.686kg, 21-carat gold ring.
• The largest coin, 1 meter wide, 2.3 centimetres thick and weighing 185kg, was made in Dubai.
• The world's most expensive cocktail, "the 27.321," named for its 27,321 dirham ($7,400) price tag, features on the menu of the Skyview Bar at Burj Al Arab.
• Dubai's Princess Tower, completed in 2013, is the world's tallest residential tower at 413.4 meters and with 100 above-ground floors.
Loading weather data ...
© 2013 Cable News Network. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
An officer from Guinness World Records (second right) measures a 130.68m long cake in Tokyo on April 17, 2013. Around 90 patissiers and students used 54kg flour, 43kg sugar and 2,682 eggs, beating the previous record of 115.09m for the longest cake in the world.
Bar owner Salvatore Calabrese pours a glass of 'Salvatore's Legacy', during an attempt to make the world's most expensive cocktail at Salvatore's Playboy Club in London, England on October 11, 2012. The beverage is priced at 5,500 GBP (6,824 Euros) per glass and contains 40ml 1778 Clos de Griffier Vieux Cognac, 20ml 1770 Kummel Liqueur, 20ml circa 1860 Dubb Orange Curacao and two dashes of circa 1900s Angostura Bitters.
Hindu devotees pray and prepare rice porridge in the streets surrounding the Attukal Bhagavathy Temple in Thiruvananthapuram on March 7, 2012 as they take part in the Pongala Festival in Kerala. More than 3.5 million women took part in the festival, attempting to set a world record for the largest gathering of women at a festival.
Around 1,000 Indian students dressed as Mahatma Gandhi for the occasion of Gandhi Jayanti, the birthday of Mahatma Gandhi, the 'Father of the Nation', in Ahmedabad on October 2, 2012. Officials from the Guinness World Records confirmed a new world record for the number of people in Gandhi attire.
More than 6000 people from over 30 countries from five different continents took part in the Freedom Faithnet Global's (FFG) Annual Freedom Celebration to attempt to break the largest torchlit image and parade on December 11, 2011 at Istora Senayan stadium in Jakarta, Indonesia.
First Lady Michelle Obama is surrounded by school children as she launched a challenge to help break the Guinness World Records title for the most people doing jumping jacks in a 24-hour period. The 'Let's Move!' event took place on the White House South Lawn in Washington, DC on October 11, 2011.
Hauts-de-Seine region general council President Patrick Devedjian (right) poses with French chef Philippe Gardette (third left) holding the certificate for the world longest, 150 meter Yule log on December 1, 2010 at the Christmas market in La Defense, outside Paris.
Britain's James Field attempted to beat the Guinness World Record for the greatest number of consecutive bungee jumps in 60 minutes by one person. Fields finally reached 42 in an hour, easily beating the former record of 19, near London's Tower Bridge, on September 26, 2010.
This picture shows part of a mosaic of traditional Arabic sweets, measuring 112 meters long, which entered the Guinness Book of World Records as the biggest of its kind on July 14, 2010 in Damascus, Syria.
Sultan Kosen of Turkey, the world's tallest man, meets Pingping of China, the world's shortest man, in Istanbul, Turkey on January 14, 2010. Pingping stands at 73 cm (2 feet 5 inch) and Kosen is 246.5 cm (8 feet 1 inch) tall and both are in the Guinness World Records for their unusual heights.
Strongman Manjit Singh, 59, pulls a double decker bus using ropes attached to his hair, in London, on November 12, 2009. Singh broke the world record Thursday by pulling the bus a total of 21.2 meters.
At 104 years of age, Chinese twin sisters Cao Daqiao (right) and Cao Xiaoqiao are listed as the oldest living twins in the world. They are pictured at home in Weifang, east China's Shandong province, on November 29, 2009.
Cooks make a 46-metre-long 'torta' (Mexican sandwich) during the annual 'Torta Festival' in Mexico City, on July 31, 2009. More than 200 people helped to make the giant sandwich, which included meat, chicken, avocado, mole (Mexican spicy sauce), turkey, tomatoes, beans, ham and different types of cheese in an attempt to break the record for the longest 'torta'.
Joel Waul, 27, poses with his unfinished 8,200 pound rubber band ball that he created in the driveway of his home on August 14, 2008 in Lauderhill, Florida. The ball eventually weighed in at 9,400 pounds and set the world record for the largest rubber band ball on November 13, 2008.
Around 31,000 students, faculty and alumni of the Polytechnic University of the Philippines in Manila created a 'human rainbow' at the central park on September 18, 2004. The rainbow intended to boost the image of the school and was also a bid to set a new record for the world's largest human rainbow.
Danka Kordak, a chihuahua bitch owned by Igor Kvetko, holds the Guinness World Record as the smallest dog in the world. Danka is 19 centimeters long, only 13 centimeters tall and weighs 780 grammes. Picture taken on September 8, 2004 in Revuca, Slovakia.
|