Dubai Is Paving a Street With 24-Karat Gold, Ending Centuries of Rich People Having to Touch Ordinary Ground

Every city has a sidewalk problem. In most of them it is potholes. In Dubai, apparently, it was that the pavement was not yet made of money.

Dubai Gold District says it will open a walkway made of 24-karat gold within the next two months, billing it as the first of its kind and the longest in the world. Rashid Al Harmoudi, the district's Senior Director of the Commercial Sector, said it will let residents and tourists walk along a golden path. That is the whole pitch. It is not a metaphor. It is a sidewalk with a private banker.

Officials have not disclosed the walkway's length, the amount of gold, the construction method or the cost. So it is the longest in the world, at an unknown length, built an unknown way, for an unknown price. Confidence like that usually comes from an engineering study or a press release. Only one has been released.

The physics are not on the gold's side. Twenty-four-karat is the softest gold there is, which is why jewellers mix it with other metals so a wedding ring can survive a handshake. Dubai has decided to put it under rolling suitcases. Somewhere a metallurgist is lying face down on the floor. Every footstep becomes a tiny withdrawal. The first tourist in stilettos will leave lighter in spirit and richer in heel.

Security will need a new job description. Other cities post "Keep off the grass." Dubai will need "Please return the street." Street sweepers will be issued brooms, scales and an auditor. Anyone who drops to one knee will have to explain whether they are proposing or prospecting.

The announcement came at the unveiling of a sensible accessory: Joyalukkas's Mayura Sahasra, "A Thousand Peacocks," a pair of 22-carat gold jhumka earrings that Guinness World Records certified as both the heaviest and the largest pair ever made. Together they weigh 16.514 kilograms, more than five times the old record. Each one is 1.215 metres long. Fifty-five artisans spent 5,840 hours on them. These are earrings the way a bus shelter is a hat. Each one outweighs most airlines' carry-on allowance, so you can wear them, but you cannot fly in them.

Business, meanwhile, is glittering. The district reports 20 percent more wholesale gold trading offices since January and 15 percent more new shops selling gold, jewellery, precious stones and luxury watches. It expects 10 to 20 percent more companies to relocate there next year and is planning what it hopes will be the Middle East's largest gold and jewellery exhibition. At this rate they will run out of things to make of gold and start on the pigeons.

Entry to the district is free, making it the first gold-related transaction in human history with no markup.

The rest of the world keeps its streets in concrete and its gold in vaults. Dubai has simply removed the middleman: the pavement is the vault. Just watch your step. In Dubai, a pothole will no longer be a repair job. It will be reported as a robbery.