Dubai’s Luxury Islands Are Empty, Here’s Why

The World Islands is an archipelago in the United Arab Emirates and only one of many other magnificent artificial islands created there. And although the idea of man-made islands sounds very modern, the process has a long history. Many thousands of years ago, prehistoric people used to pile hundreds of boulders on lakes or rivers bottoms to create small islands. We do know the purpose of the “chinampas” – Aztec artificial islands for cultivating crops.

What about more modern man-made islands? Nowadays, islands are created for the need for extra space. Many Asian airports are built on artificial islands. However, not all islands are made with a purpose. Most of the New York Harbor islands are man-made, but not all were actually planned. Belmont Island is just a pile of rocks, disposed of while constructing the underwater metro tunnel. The position of the largest man-made island is taken by the Netherlands island Flevoland. But for some people, one island is just not enough, and whole archipelagos are created. Four enormous projects were completed in the United Arab Emirates. One of them is the aforementioned The World archipelago. Let’s have a closer look, shall we?

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TIMESTAMPS:
They say nothing is impossible in Dubai 3:26
…but things went wrong 4:47
Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s island 6:20
Ecological concerns 7:33
“The World” is slowly coming back to life 8:56

CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0:
The causeway to the settlement Eilean Dhomhnaill in Loch Olabhat: By Richard Law, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=24422502
CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0:
Aerial Photograph of Kansai International Airport at JAPAN in 2007: By Tdk, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1812650
Chūbu Central Airport from above: By BehBeh, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=16915261
A bird’s eye view of Hong Kong International Airport: By Wylkie Chan, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=11251117
Adult Lesser Flamingos: By Mark D. Anderson, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4593496
Aerial view of 2000 adult Lesser Flamingos: By Mark D. Anderson, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4593414
Palm Jebel: By Imre Solt, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3276752, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3276758, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4124870
CC BY-SA 3.0 igo, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/igo/deed.en:
North Holland, Friesland and Flevoland by Sentinel-2, 2018-06-30: By Copernicus Sentinel-2, ESA – https://scihub.copernicus.eu/dhus/#/home, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=89131368
NASA Image and Video Library
Animation is created by Bright Side.