An exhibition of hand-made antique carpets is on display at the Emirates Towers Shopping Boulevard. The exhibition, which will continue until Sunday, was organised by the Persian Carpet House (PCH) which has an exclusive collection of precious hand-made carpets from Iran, Afghanistan and Kashmir. More than 200 carpets are being displayed.

PCH Sales Manager Syed Salahuddin said, "Most customers are usually misled by various machine-made carpets flooding the market. It is very important to create awareness about the uniqueness of Persian carpets among buyers who at times can't tell the difference between a hand-made and a factory-manufactured carpet."

His company has 31 outlets in the UAE and its outlet at the Emirates Towers has a collection of more than 5,000 hand-made pieces. "Some of these are like art works made as wall hangings," he said. "We have age-old collections of the finest carpets in the world. Some of our collections costs hundreds of thousands of dirhams.

"We have an Isfahan piece worth Dh600,000 which is more than a century old." His colleagues from Persian Carpet House attend to visitors from 10am to 10pm every day and explain the fine details of the art of carpet weaving.

A live demonstration on carpet-weaving is also being held at the Boulevard where carpet weaver Aamir Ahmed shows his expertise. "A 3X5 foot standard Qom carpet usually takes between six months and one year to make," he said.

"It can also take one to three years depending on the size and design of the carpet." Ahmed, who learnt the art while he was 15, now works for PCH and usually repairs damaged carpets sent by customers.