We all use the image without thinking. Dubai has decided to take it literally: by the end of 2026, the city\u2019s historic gold district is set to unveil a pedestrian walkway covered in 24-carat gold. The first of its kind, and the longest in the world, according to those behind it.<\/p>\n
The story begins on Saturday 24 October 2026. That day, Dubai\u2019s gold district was already celebrating two Guinness World Records for a pair of giant earrings unveiled in front of the cameras. On the sidelines of the event, one of the district\u2019s officials let slip the news: soon, an entire walkway covered in 24-carat gold would be open to everyone, allowing anyone to literally walk on gold.<\/p>\n
The Emirati press reported the announcement the very next day. Since then, the promise has travelled around the world: an opening \u201cby the end of 2026\u201d, specified as \u201cwithin the next two months\u201d.<\/p>\n
In Dubai, nothing is ever just for show. Every record, every architectural extravagance, every world first serves the same narrative: keep the city in the conversation, again and again, in every language. The golden walkway is a perfect illustration of how this works: turning a metal into a setting, and a setting into an attraction.<\/p>\n
There is also a certain unapologetic boldness to the gesture. While Europe tends to keep its gold discreet, passing it down, storing it in a safe deposit box<\/a>, treating it as wealth handed down from generation to generation<\/a>, the Gulf puts it on display, turns it into monuments and makes a spectacle of it. Two cultures built around the same metal, two ways of telling its story.<\/p>\n What makes the announcement so shareable is that it taps into something universal. \u201cWalking on gold\u201d evokes the ultimate dream, the kind of phrase used for unexpected success or unattainable luxury. Making it literal gives anyone a fleeting taste of that fantasy, right there in the street.<\/p>\n One question remains, and only the coming months will answer it: how thick does gold need to be to withstand thousands of footsteps a day? The announcement does not say. For now, it is content to fire the imagination, which was probably the main aim all along.<\/p>\n Yes, that is the central promise: a public walkway, open to visitors and residents alike, with a 24-carat gold covering laid on the ground. The project is due to open by the end of 2026, with the timeframe given in late October as \u201cwithin the next two months\u201d. No exact date has been announced, so for now it remains a proposed development: its intended use has been described, but the walkway is not yet accessible. We will have to wait for the actual opening to find out exactly what the experience will be like.<\/p>\n No, and that is precisely one of the big mysteries surrounding this announcement. Neither the quantity of gold nor the walkway\u2019s exact length or construction cost has been disclosed. The only material specification revealed so far is the purity of the metal: a 24-carat gold covering laid on the ground in a public space. Without knowing the surface area or the thickness of the covering, there is no way to make a credible estimate of the mass of metal involved. Any figures you might come across elsewhere for the quantity of gold are therefore, at this stage, made-up estimates.<\/p>\n Not at this stage. The developer describes the walkway as \u201cthe first and longest in the world\u201d, but no plans to seek official recognition have been announced. What is real and certified, however, are the two Guinness World Records awarded on 24 October for the giant Mayura Sahasra earrings, unveiled at the same event. If the walkway does eventually seek an official title, that will have to wait until it has been completed and potentially measured by Guinness World Records adjudicators.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Dubai has decided to take the expression literally: by the end of 2026, the city\u2019s historic gold quarter is due to open a pedestrian walkway covered in 24-carat gold.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":705,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-actualite"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/goldandsilvercompany.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/707","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/goldandsilvercompany.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/goldandsilvercompany.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goldandsilvercompany.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goldandsilvercompany.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=707"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/goldandsilvercompany.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/707\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":709,"href":"https:\/\/goldandsilvercompany.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/707\/revisions\/709"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goldandsilvercompany.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/goldandsilvercompany.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goldandsilvercompany.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goldandsilvercompany.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Walking on gold: an idea as old as time<\/h2>\n
Frequently asked questions<\/h2>\n
Will people really be able to walk on it?<\/h3>\n
Do we know how much gold will be needed to cover it?<\/h3>\n
Is it a Guinness World Record?<\/h3>\n