Crystalline nanotubes of gamma-AlOOH and gamma-Al(2)O(3) have been synthesized. An anionic surfactant-assisted hydrothermal process yields gamma-AlOOH nanotubes, and appropriate calcination treatment of the gamma-AlOOH nanotubes yields gamma-Al(2)O(3) nanotubes. The nanotubes were characterized by XRD, SEM, TEM, TG-DSC, FTIR and nitrogen adsorption-desorption techniques. Both the gamma-AlOOH and gamma-Al(2)O(3) nanotubes are crystalline, with a representative length of approximately 500 nm and diameters of 20-40 nm. The gamma-Al(2)O(3) nanotubes exhibit a very high mesoporous specific surface area (SSA) of 201.0 m(2) g(-1) and a high mesopore volume of 0.68 cm(3) g(-1) with an average mesopore size of 27.7 nm, as well as a high microporous SSA of 186.0 m(2) g(-1) and a micropore volume of 0.08 cm(3) g(-1) with an average micropore size of 0.53 nm. The formation process was discussed and a possible mechanism was proposed, in which a lamellar phase was first formed by camphorsulfonic anions and Al(III) species, and then rolled up to form the crystalline nanotubes under the hydrothermal condition. The catalytic performance of the obtained gamma- Al(2)O(3) nanotubes was tested by using the dehydration of ethanol to ethylene as a probe reaction and it was shown that the obtained gamma- Al(2)O(3) nanotubes catalyst possesses a higher catalytic activity compared with the gamma- Al(2)O(3) nanoparticles.