1. Central World Mall - Bangkok, Thailand (429 thousand square meters)
Opened in 1990, this mall is the largest shopping mall in Thailand and has been marketed as a shopping center for the middle class. In 2010, a terrible fire broke out in it that lasted two days and was caused by political protesters, and the "Zen" part of it was so badly damaged that it was reopened only two years later, in 2012, after being renovated. The entire mall was closed for several months after this seminal event, and when it opened only 80% of the stores were able to return to business as usual. It currently has about 600 different shops and a 5-star hotel with 57 floors
2. West Gate Central Mall - Nonthaburi, Thailand (550 thousand square meters)
This mall has more than 500 shops and restaurants, but also an IKEA store measuring 50,000 square meters. There is a movie theater there with several special halls, among them a hall with a huge ultra screen, an IMAX hall and a 4DX hall with moving chairs, lights and even smells. As in most large malls, here too there is an indoor amusement park, and also a very large IKEA store.
3. Golden Resource Mall - Beijing, China (557 thousand square meters)
This mall was the largest in the world between the years 2004-2005, and although in its original design it was assumed that at least 50,000 shoppers would come to it every day, in practice the number was much smaller, and sometimes there were even only 20 shoppers per hour. The problem was the prices of the products sold there, which were above and beyond the economic capacity of the Chinese citizens, and another problem was the lack of accessibility of the mall to foreign consumers due to its location far from the center of Beijing.
4. SM Tianjin - Tianjin, China (565 thousand square meters)
This is one of the many malls that belong to the SM (Super Malls) chain in Asia, and each of them is huge in size, with the idea behind them being to open malls in cities where they do not invest in building large malls, so that they will not have to compete with malls in very popular cities, which allows For the entire property to be cheaper for both the contractor and the store owners. This mall opened in 2010 near the Tianjin airport, and when it opened it was the chain's largest mall among the seven opened in China
5. SM Mall of Asia - Manila, Philippines (589 thousand square meters)
This mall consists of 4 buildings that are connected to each other by the roads where electric trains pass, and although it has more than 3,500 stores, the main attraction of the mall is the IMAX cinema, where the largest 3D screen in the Philippines is located, which at the time of the establishment of the mall was the largest in the world. It is considered the largest mall in the Philippines, and its construction caused the closure of a large number of nearby malls. There is also an Olympic-sized ice rink here, where ice skating competitions and ice hockey games are sometimes held.
6. South China Mall - Dongguan, China (659 thousand square meters)
This mall was opened in 2005, and for more than 10 years it was almost empty, because only a small amount of business owners set up shops there, which gave it the nickname "the dead mall". In 2015, however, it was renovated, and since then many shops and attractions have been established there, but it still remains mostly empty. Today it has an IMAX-style cinema, an amusement park and an oceanarium with marine mammal shows, and it is no longer as deserted as it was, when more than 90% of it is already filled with about 2,350 shops, restaurants and various attractions.
7. Sfahan City Center - Isfahan, Iran (776 thousand square meters)
The developer of this mall was very optimistic about his venture - he hoped that the sanctions imposed on Iran in 2016 would eventually be lifted and that Donald Trump would invest in a hotel that would be built near the mall, but that didn't really happen. The mall was built in 4 stages and divided into 7 floors, with about 750 shops and restaurants, as well as a museum and an indoor amusement park with a roller coaster
8. City vs. IOI - Putrajaya, Malaysia (821 thousand square meters)
This mall was opened in 2014 and is intended for the middle-upper class, and only recently the second phase of its construction was completed, towards the end of 2022, which made it the third largest mall in the world. It has more than 650 shops, a post-apocalyptic theme park, 2 ice rinks and a host of luxury shops, restaurants and cafes.
9. The Avenues Mall - Ray District, Kuwait (1.2 million square meters)
This mall was built in 4 phases, with the first completed in 2006 and the fourth in 2018, meaning its construction took 12 years, and cost a total of about 3 billion dollars. There is a huge interior space designed to feel like an open space, where there are some of the biggest brand stores in the world, including Gucci, Dior, Louis Vuitton and more. In addition, the mall has an entire and huge market that is designed as if it is located in the heart of a desert, and there are cafes and classic Arabic restaurants that are designed to give shoppers an authentic experience.
10. Iran Mall - Tehran, Iran (1.9 million square meters)
his is the largest mall in the world, when it opened in 2018 and parts of it are still under construction today. It has more than 2,500 shops, food complexes with several hundred restaurants and cafes, a huge library measuring 3,300 square meters with 67,00 volumes, a cinema with 12 theaters in IMAX format, a theater with 2,000 seats, art galleries, a museum, an exhibition hall for vehicles and 3 hotels, one of which is considered 5 stars and contains about 450 rooms. Its highlight is on the roof, and it is Gan Mahan - a huge Persian garden with an area of 8,500 square meters. The roof also has a sports complex with hiking trails, bike paths, 15 sports fields and even an ice skating rink measuring about 12,000 square meters and several swimming pools.
