Sultan is an Islamic title, with several historical meanings. Originally it was an Arabic language abstract noun meaning "strength", "authority", or "rulership". Later, it came to be used as the title of certain Muslim rulers who claimed full sovereignty in practical terms (i.e., the lack of dependence on any higher ruler), without claiming the overall caliphate. It then developed some further meanings in certain contexts. The dynasty and lands ruled by the Sultan is called Sultanate . In Hebrew, "shilton" or "shaltan" means "dominion" or "regime".

In case you were wondering where this hotel is, for starters, it isn't a hotel at all. It is a house!

The house is owned by the family of Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the former president of the United Arab Emirates and ruler of Abu-Dhabi.

The United Arab Emirates is located in the Persian Gulf. The northern tip of the country borders on the legendary Straits of Hormuz, a narrow bottleneck that controls access to the Persian Gulf. The UAE capital is located in Abu Dubai.

The nearby city-state of Dubai is host to all sorts of super-structures including the Burj al Arab Hotel.

We hope you will enjoy the pictures of the Sultan's Palace.

The Audi A8 in SILVER was made for a sheik.... IT IS NOT SILVER in COLOR, IT IS MADE out of SILVER!!!!!

Amazing what $3.00 US a gallon gas can buy, isn't it? Do you get the feeling these guys have more money than they know what to do with it?

Sultan of Brunei, Hassanal Bolkiah, who has been the richest man in the world for many years, certainly has a fine way to spend his money. He owns around 5000 cars: the most expensive, the most beautiful, the most rare, the fastest, the unique...yes, he has them all. He keeps them in five big warehouse-garages. One visitor of the sultan's garage's once said: "It can take an hour and a half just to get a certain car out if it's been parked right at the back."

The cars are driven by the Sultan, members of his family, and also by the ministers of state, government officials and other members of the royal household. His auto empire includes 350 Rolls-Royce cars, eight McLaren's F1, six Dauer 962 LMs, the only right-handed Mercedes CLK-GTR in the world, a Lamborghini Diablo Jota, two Jaguar XJR-15, numerous Ferraris, Mercedes, Jaguars, Porsches, Bentleys.

In the past 15 years, Sultan has been a regular client for prestige car companies. For example, only Rolls-Royce provided 40-50 cars a year for his majesty and Aston Martin has sold over 300 cars during these years. His special interest are unique cars, such as Bentley Java and Bentley Dominator 4x4. His Aston Martin collection includes: Aston Martin AM3, Aston Martin DB7 by Pininfarina, Aston Martin V8 AM2 by Pininfarina. Six bullet-proof Rolls-Royce Phantoms are also in his possession. Sultan has a number of unique and custom made cars made just for him. A Ferrari FX, actually six of them, featured the Flat 12 engine of the Ferrari Testarossa and a 7 speed sequential transmission from the Williams BMW Formula 1 team, is custom made for his royal highness. His Ferrari collection includes: Ferrari Testarossa F90, Ferrari F50 Bolide Tub by Pininfarina, Ferrari 550 Barchetta Speciale, Ferrari 456 GTA Venice Estate etc. The royal family also owns two fully operational Ferrari Mythos road cars.

Sultan of Brunei is also interested in motor racing. He actually has a private museum of Formula one cars driven by the F1 champions since 1980, purchased from the F1 teams. He even has a Villeneuve's FW19, damaged by the collision with Michael Schumacher in 1997.

His brother Prince Jefri, known as the Playboy Prince, used to 'help' him in choosing which and how many cars should they buy. Famous for his lavish lifestyle, besides his expensive and exotic cars, Jefri also has a 50 meter yacht called Tits which contained two lifeboats named Nipple 1 and Nipple 2. However, after 1998. and the Asian financial crisis when Prince Jefri lost billions of dollars and ended up in court against his big brother, massive car purchase was stopped, the mechanics were sent away, garages were locked and cars mothballed. But soon, Sultan has returned to his old habits. Surely we will here more of the magnificent cars in his private collection.

Despite his wealth, Hassanal Bolkiah Muizzaddin Waddaulah, Sultan and Prime Minister of Brunei since 1967 is surrounded by gloom. From his father he inherited a personal fortune estimated at $40 billion, which once placed him at the top of Fortune magazine's list of the world's richest people. Recent reports, however, suggest that his treasure has dwindled to a mere $10 billion-peanuts, these days.

The question is: where in earth can it all have gone? It's not so easy to blow $30 billion, which is roughly equivalent to the entire annual income of all 125 million people living in Bangladesh.

Well, a sizeable chunk of it went on the Sultan's palace, monstrosity that boasts 1,788 rooms and is larger than the Vatican-in a tiny country with just 300,000 inhabitants. When the Sultan's daughter turned 18 he bought her an Airbus. For himself he prefers his own jumbo jet, originally designed to carry over 400 people.

Great skill in extravagance has also been acquired by his brother, Prince Jefri. Having heard of Disneyland, he decided to build the Jerudong Park Playground in the capital, Bandar-Seri Begawan, at a cost of $1 billion.

Between them, the brothers Bolkiah own London's Dorchester Hotel, the New York Palace and the Plaza Athenee in Paris. After the Sultanate's independence from Britain in 1984 they bought 2,000 luxury limousines and became the world's biggest customers for Rolls Royce motor cars.

But their combined spending talents, have proved unequal to the task of disposing of the revenues that constantly flow into their private bank accounts from Shell Oil, which is responsible for extracting the Sultanate's vast but only natural resource.

So a small army of hangers-on was assembled, among them one Mohamed al Fayed. The Sultan and his brothers have long been suspected of bankrolling Fayed's subsequent purchase of the upmarket Harrods store in London. Fayed- at the centre of recent bribery scandals in the British Parliament, as well as the father of the boyfriend who died with Princess Diana-claims that during the financial crisis of 1992 the British Government approached him personally to intercede with the Sultan to keep his billions in London.

Such large sums of cash automatically attract political interest. In 1987 it was reported that when US colonel Oliver North asked the Sultanate for help in subverting the Nicaraguan Government-$10 million was duly deposited in a Swiss bank account.

Britain, in keeping with its role as the major arms supplier to the region-Brunei is an enclave in Malaysian territory on the island of Borneo, most of which is Indonesian - concluded an arms deal with the Sultan in 1991 valued at $150 million. Few people can have suspected the presence of British Gurkha (Nepalese) troops in Brunei until they emerged to join the peace-making forces in East Timor.

Even this, however, would have made only a small dent in the Sultan's wealth had it not been for straightforward financial incompetence, a prolonged fall in the price of oil, and the Asian crash of 1997. Large sums of money were lost on property deals and attempts to prop up the currencies of neighbouring countries.

So the Sultan has had to slaughter some of his polo ponies and sell off other prized trophies, such as Embankment Place in London, valued at $376 million and home to accountants Pricewaterhouse-Coopers. Last autumn, 200 British accountants from Arthur Anderson went through the books in search of what was left, as billions disappeared from the Sultan's portfolios with bankers Morgan Grenfell, JP Morgan, Citibank and Nomura. The annual $1 billion spent on running Brunei's 'Shellfare State' is now thought to be at risk, along with the polo ponies.

Though the people of Brunei are far from poverty-stricken, they have not been allowed to vote since a failed uprising in 1962. Six political prisoners incarcerated then were finally released in 1991.

Brunei is another of the stains the oil business makes wherever it goes-in the Arabian Gulf, Nigeria, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Burma, the Caspian Sea and, arguably, Britain as well. The grotesque extravagance and greed it engenders, and the political methods used to control its production, invariably provoke widespread chaos. In this ugly pantomime the Sultan and his brother have taken prominent roles as the world's most spendthrift individuals.

Sultan Palace Hotel is an authentic arabic Hotel in the old city centre in Sanaa, the capital city of the Republic of Yemen .