Before Dubai Marina's tower clusters existed as anything more than reclaimed sand, a low-rise Moorish palace was taking shape along Jumeirah Beach that would establish the visual grammar for Gulf resort architecture for the decade that followed. One&Only Royal Mirage, which opened in 1999 across 65 landscaped acres, was designed by Wimberly Allison Tong & Goo — the Hawaii-based practice responsible for some of the most commercially influential resort architecture of the late twentieth century — in a language drawn from Andalusian and North African precedent: sand-coloured render, horseshoe arches, pierced mashrabiya screens, and a central dome that anchors the arrival sequence. The reflecting pool approach flanked by date palms and pierced brass lanterns, visible at dusk in the images, establishes a processional axis closer to a Mughal garden than a hotel forecourt. Inside, the interiors move between registers. Guest rooms carry carved white-lacquered headboards in arabesque fretwork against cerise damask cushions and embossed bed runners — decorative in its ambition, deliberately so. The palace villas push further, layering gold-fretted mirror panels, cobalt Murano-style glass pendants, and gilded Louis XV-derived occasional chairs against white marble floors inlaid with geometric borders. The dining room counters this richness with restrained tailoring: tufted ivory banquettes, tan leather chairs, and cascading crystal chandeliers hung from coffered ceilings. At the beach pool, a Corten steel portal frames a mashrabiya arch beyond, the Dubai Marina skyline rising behind — an unplanned juxtaposition that has become one of the most photographed views in the emirate.

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