The World Islands – Dubai’s 14 Billion Dollar Failure

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In Dubai, United Emirates, they build an artificial archipelago that was meant to resemble a map the entire world, however, you might not have ever heard about it.

After the tremendous success of the famous luxurious Palm Islands in Dubai, their ruler, Sheikh Maktoum decided to be a bit bolder and envisioned something even more spectacular to be created. The world Islands.

The Project started off in 2003 with the intention of creating an artificial island paradise from scratch, in the shape of the world map. A Project like this, if done successfully would surely make the world stand I awe once again. Requiring 321 Million cubic meters of sand to create the world islands, it certainly would not be the easiest or cheapest task to perform. With an estimated 14 Billon Dollar expenditure, the final construction included the entire world is represented as Small Islands (except for Israel).

But, even though the concept was amazing in theory, the practicality all soon faded away for the thinkers and creators of this project. The 300 strong Islands that were created soon became vaguely recognizable in shape and form and did not represent the world at all anymore. Due to factors such as weathering, sinking, and erosion the well-defined borders soon faded away. Basically, everything faded into one big large indistinguishable blob.

Sixty percent of the islands were sold off to private companies and investors by 2008. However, another curve ball thrown towards the developers soon made the investors fume with anger and regret, as the world islands did not have a reliable source of electricity after the initial plan fell through to install electric cables under the Persian Gulf.

Due to this 291 out of the total of 300 world islands have remained undeveloped, basically just ending up being piles of sand, artificially created to resemble ‘something’. Without a sustainable electrical source, nothing could be pursued to be done with the Islands itself.

Currently, at least nine of the islands have been developed into something that can be used. Lebanon Island, Pete’s Island, the six islands making up the “heart of Europe” resort and Island Michael Schumacher, which was named after the legendary Formula One racer. Africa, Asia, Australia and South America remained entirely uninhabitable.

Thank you for reading… #TheSomethingGuy #SouthAfrica