The UAE is nuts about records. World records. Any of them. But especially those involving tall buildings.

Dubai now claims six of the world’s seven tallest hotels, for example. It had five of the top six, but the imminent opening of Tower 1 of the JW Marriott Marquis, which tops out at 355 meters (1,165 feet), jumps to the top of the list, pushing the city’s Rose Rayhaan by Rotana (1,092 feet) to second, according to the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat. The only non-Dubai hotel on the “tall hotels” list is Baiyoke Tower II, in Bangkok, at No. 5.

Seems like once a week someone, somewhere in the UAE (usually in Dubai) claims a world record, and Guinness World Records is the ultimate arbiter of such things.

Thus, it makes perfect sense that Guinness World Records has opened a Dubai office — to be nearby, the next time Dubai opens some monstrous building.

Driving into Dubai is, actually, an astonishing experience because most of the enormous buildings line the freeway, and the sensation is one of driving into a man-made canyon, and the urge is to crane your neck to try to see to the top of this or that — or that or that — building.

In The National story on the clustering of enormous hotels in Dubai, the head of the company that designed the Marriott Marquis said: “Tall buildings are a reflection of the ego.”

So, yes, Dubai basically is shouting at the world: “Look at me!” (Abu Dhabi, not nearly as much.)

For Dubai, it works. The wealthy from all over the Old World congregate here for good weather (in the winter) and over-the-top everything.

The sense now is that after a lull during the worldwide recession of 2008 and 2009, Dubai is back to building big buildings, and the notion of the standard $1,000-a-night hotel is attainable.

Dubai also has the world’s biggest building, the 2,722-foot Burj Khalifa, and inside it is a hotel — but the hotel is only a fraction of the building.

(The Empire State Building, in New York, the world’s tallest building for 40 years, through 1972, is a mere 1,454 feet. Manhattan skyscrapers at least have the excuse of going vertical because the island is small. Dubai has miles and miles of empty desert on three sides; it just likes tall buildings.)

Of course, Dubai is not alone in the building mania. Saudi Arabia is intent on erecting the Kingdom Tower, which will be taller than the Burj Khalifa, five years from now, though no specific height has been named yet.

Perhaps Guinness will want to open an office in Saudi, as well.

Meantime, the UAE is the holder of 102 world records, according to a Guinness spokesman. Some are silly — the world’s biggest kebab, the world’s longest sandwich. Some are the sorts of things that people really notice — towers that pierce the Arabian sky.