Hundreds converged on Katara Amphitheatre Sunday as Qatar set yet another Guinness World Record, unveiling the largest key in the world. Weighing a whopping 4.5 tons (combined with the base), the 7.8metre long and 2.8metre high key has been created by Ard Cannan restaurant in Katara Cultural Village and it officially made it to the Guinness Book of World Records.
The restaurant revealed the key in a ceremony organised with its other partners at Katara, featuring the Arab Idol winning Palestinian music sensation Mohammed Assaf and Palestinian Dabke dance performances.
“This key is a symbol (of freedom) for all refugees in the world, not just Palestinians to whom I belong. (But) it is particularly symbolic for us, Palestinians. We tried to create a symbol in a way to tell the world that these refugees have the right to return,” Wesam Swelam, Chairman Ard Cannan restaurant, told Community at the unveiling.
Guinness World Records representative Samer Khallouf, Head of RMT, Mena, officially declared the key as the world’s largest after taking the measurements in front of a packed Katara Amphitheatre. The official records certificate was then handed to the restaurant management.
“This is a hundred times bigger than the original key and made from the exact same material. It is a mix of iron. The weight of this key is 4.5 tonnes,” Khallouf told reporters.
“We researched and found that we could generate a key bigger than the existing Guinness World record-holder in Cyprus. So this key is bigger than the key earlier recorded in Guinness and we are thankful to Qatar and Katara Cultural Complex for accepting this as a gift,” says Swelam.
The previous world record for the largest key was set in Cyprus in September 2006. That key was 5.5m tall and 2.6m wide and was produced by Evagoras Georgiou.
“We are gifting it to Katara to make it a symbol for all refugees who want to go back to their land, one day,” said Ard Cannan Chairman.
The day also coincided with Nakbah when Israel was established in 1948. That day the Palestinians were forced to leave their homeland; they saved the keys to their homes, hoping to return one day.
“When we started with the idea we called Guinness to find about the regulations. We found that there were certain requirements that needed to be followed to make this key. One of those requirements was to make a genuine functional key proportionate to the size it is,” said Swalem.
“So we found a (functional) key and brought it from Jerusalem. Then we made this key proportional and identical to that key. We were discussing the regulations with Guinness and we made it from steel — as was the genuine key — creating all the bends and contours similar to the ones found on the smaller key,” he added.
He thanked Delta Fabco, the local manufacturer and a steel fabrication company, for manufacturing the key. Swalem said 26 people were involved with the supervision of the making of the key. This involved engineering units, fabricators and welders.
It was not difficult, he maintained. Delta Fabco, he said, was doing very sophisticated structures. They are working nowadays on big structures in Qatar Rail and doing the carriage for the drills to move these from one side to the other side.
“To tell you the truth, I think no-one could do it here in Qatar and we are really thankful to Delta Fabco for doing everything from design and research to development,” said Swalem.
Giving the dimensions of the key, he said it is around 7.8 metres with around 2.8m width and almost 4 tonnes heavy. It was not that difficult to shift it to Katara as they have been transporting heavier and bigger items than this, the Ard Cannan chairman pointed out.
The name of this key would be Ard Cannan key and hence, it would be sitting in front of the restaurant which is opening in about two weeks during Ramadan. It will be there for the people to see and take pictures.
“At Ard Cannan, we are coming up with some really special cuisine. It is a traditional Palestinian cuisine never touched before — perhaps, because Palestinian people have been refugees and they did not care much about the cuisine,” said Swalem, smiling.
“So I, and my partner, Khaled al-Kuwari, the investor, thought of making a very special Palestinian cuisine. We talked to Katara and they liked the idea. They saw it as something related to their concept which is advertising culture and heritage of other countries to the people,” he noted.
Swalem said the restaurant’s concept goes with the idea of Katara and they have supported it in all aspects from the design to the menu. Ard Cannan which means the Land of Cannan, the area which now comprises Palestine, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria and part of Egypt, is going to be something really special, claimed Swalem.   
Meanwhile, the audience at Katara amphitheatre was thrilled to watch Mohammad Assaf performing live. Assaf sprang to the limelight after winning the second season of the popular reality show Arab Idol.
He is known for his rendition of well-known Arabic love songs and patriotic hymns for the Palestinian cause. A biopic The Idol was made by Academy Award-nominated Palestinian director Hany Abu-Assad based on his story. This was part financed by the Doha Film Institute.
The ceremony also witnessed a power-packed Dabke performance from the group of Palestinian dancers. A large number of multicultural audience attended the unveiling of the largest key and Assaf’s performance that lasted more than two hours.