Artificial Islands: Technology in alliance with nature. Artificial islands and reclaimed shores

828 meters high), the Emirates began to wash into the sea giant islands, which have already received the title of the eighth wonder of the world. But there is a reason - the islands can be seen with the naked eye from space, and even on the Moon!

The Palm project surprised and amazed many people in its scope, including your humble servant. No one has ever done this before on our planet.

The project consists of three artificial islands, in the shape of date palms(this is Jumeirah, Jebel Ali, Deira). From the sea, the islands are protected by artificial barrier reefs that can hold back waves up to 10 meters high. The “trick” of one of the islands will be the special location of buildings on the island - from the air or even from space you can read in Arabic script the famous saying of the Prince of the Emirates Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum - “Learn the wisdom of the wise. Not all those who ride a horse become riders.”

These projects, designed by Dutch specialists, with Arab petrodollars, built by Indian and Indonesian laborers, plan to compete with business Hong Kong and Singapore and outperform fashionable Las Vegas in terms of leisure and entertainment. On the vast territory of artificial islands there will be all kinds of business centers, mega malls, amusement parks, luxury hotels, huge sports facilities, exclusive villas and comfortable apartments. It is also planned to create a convenient marina for yachts of any class and level. In general, everything for a heavenly life on a grand scale.

There is probably not a single person who has not heard about The World project. 300 bulk islands, located in the shape of a geographical map of the world, near the city of Dubai. Over the past few years, a huge number of world-famous stars have acquired ownership of the islands, forcing the whole world to talk about the project.

Sooner or later, every country with a coastline thinks about expanding its borders in this way. After the world famous “seven-star” Burj Al Arab hotel was built in Dubai in 1998, the city became a real mecca for tourists. But the problem was that Dubai only has 67 km of natural coastline, and by 1999, due to active development, the city simply had no beaches left. Dubai is a linear city,

Dubai is a linear city,located along the coast, and the most expensive and significant projects are being built on the beach. The sun and the beach are the main asset of the city. The sun has not gone away, but all the beaches have gone. The only thing left to do was to create new beaches. This is how the idea of ​​building all these man-made islands that can be seen on the map today arose. All this was created for tourists, to improve the quality of tourism services in the country.

Over several years of work, designers and builders managed to add more than 500 beach kilometers to the country. And this is not the limit. In total, it is planned to add more than 1,500 km to the original 67 km of beaches.
All created islands are put up for sale. Not every wealthy person can become the owner of such a wonderful island. Islands are sold worldwide famous personalities, or developers who are ready to build a unique project on the island. Most cheap island today it is worth 15 million dollars.

"Russia" is one of the most big countries in "The World", it owns a fairly impressive number of islands. Both Russian developers and private buyers are happy to purchase “Russian” islands. There are “Moscow”, “St. Petersburg”, “Ekaterinburg” and many others geographical features Russia.

The Emirates never tire of surprising the whole world with their ambitious ideas. Perhaps this country will become the world center for the implementation of fantastic projects of the future.

One of the most interesting attractions of the United States United Arab Emirates- an archipelago of artificial islands under the general name “Palm Islands in Dubai” (or in short - The Palms). The archipelago consists of three islands in the Persian Gulf - Palm Jumeirah, Palm Jebel Ali and Palm Deira. In addition to these islands, another archipelago off the coast of the Emirates called “The World” was completed in January 2008, imitating the outlines of the continents of planet Earth. When everything is planned for this moment Dubai Islands will be built, the territory of the emirate will increase by more than 500 kilometers.

There are things in the world whose uniqueness can only be felt by seeing them with your own eyes. The same, perhaps, applies to the Palm Islands, which have already been dubbed the “Eighth Wonder of the World.”

The palm islands are made in the shape of date palms; on the top of each of them there is a crescent moon, not only as a symbol of Islam, but also serving as a breakwater. Also, the islands are surrounded by protective barrier reefs. At the Palm of Jebel Ali, they are inscriptions in Arabic - quotes from the poems of the ruler of Dubai, Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum: “To leave lines on the water, you need insight; great people set great goals for themselves. Draw wisdom from the one who has it; not everyone sitting on a horse is a rider.”

The islands are created from sand raised from the bottom of the Persian Gulf, which is sprayed over a certain area by special vessels with powerful jets that form a rainbow shape. About 135 million cubic meters were used to create another artificial island, Jebel Ali. m of sand, limestone and monoliths.

The Palm Islands can be seen from the Moon with the naked eye. They have become a symbol not only of the city of Dubai, but also of the entire United Arab Emirates. Especially after their picture was taken by Russian cosmonauts from the ISS station.

Palm Jumeirah

The Palm Jumeirah project was launched first, in June 2001. The Jumeirah Palm consists of a “trunk” from which 17 “branches” extend, forming the crown. The breakwater protecting the island from rough seas is 11 km long. It took 7 million cubic meters to create it. m. sand. 28 hotels will be built on the crescent surrounding the island. The main attraction and dream for tourists is the Atlantis complex, consisting of two pompous towers connected by a bridge. Palm Jumeirah boasts 78 km. magnificent beaches.

The island is home to marinas, shopping centers, sports facilities, clubs, hotels, and luxury housing. Residential areas are located on palm leaves and include 8,000 two-story townhouses.

Palm Jumeirah consists of the Crescent, the Crown and the Trunk.

The Crescent is a barrier that surrounds and protects the Palm. It will house hotels of famous hotel chains, built in different styles- Brazilian, Venetian, Japanese, etc.

"The Crown" consists of 17 branches rushing into the sea, forming 17 secluded microdistricts. Exclusive villas of various sizes and designs are built on the branches. The following types of villas can be purchased at Krona: Signature Villas, Garden Homes and Town Homes.

“The Trunk” is the central part of Palma, where there will be parks, shopping centers and restaurants. Multi-storey residential buildings (Shorline Apartments) are also being built on it, in which you can purchase one-, two-, three- and four-room apartments with beautiful view on the sea or on the picturesque water canal running through the center of the “Trunk”.

Transport links between Dubai and the Palm Jumeirah are carried out via a high-speed monorail train. The system is fully automatic, however, the driver will be constantly present in the cab. At the same time, the monorail will be integrated with the Dubai Metro. To allow vehicles to travel from the “trunk” of the palm tree to the “crescent” island surrounding the island, an underwater tunnel with three lanes in each direction is being built.

total area The island is 25 sq. km. Palm Jumeirah is the smallest, compared to its sisters Jebel Ali and Deira.

Palm Jebel Ali

Following Jumeirah, the Palm Jebel Ali project was launched in October 2002. Jebel Ali is approximately 40-50% larger than Jumeirah and has a more exotic shape. The main focus in Jebel Ali was on tourism, and not on private housing.

More than 1,000 bungalows supported on stilts in the Polynesian style have been built on the “second palm” coastline. More than 2,000 villas of different layouts have been built. To attract wealthy investors, it is even proposed to create houses based on individual projects. It is predicted that the so-called “palm” of Jebel Ali will accommodate about 1.7 million inhabitants by 2020. At 30,000 sq. m. it is planned to rebuild a complex of buildings made of glass and concrete, which in shape will resemble the sails of yachts. On the crescent surrounding Palm Jebel Ali there are 4 theme park entertainment - SeaWorld, Aquatica, Busch Gardens and Discovery Cove.

Palm Deira

Construction of Palma Deira began in October 2004. Deira is planned to be eight times larger than Palm Jumeirah and five times larger than Palm Jebel Ali. This project is the largest and most long-term. After its completion, the “third palm” will become the largest man-made island in the history of mankind, which will serve as a habitat for 1 million people. The work is planned to be fully completed by 2015, however, due to the large volumes and costs, most likely, the significant date will again be postponed for several years.

The extraordinary idea of ​​​​creating an alluvial island in Dubai was born in the late 90s, when the part of the 72-kilometer coastline suitable for development was already occupied, and the number of people wanting to buy real estate here ordinary tourists grew steadily. The new island was supposed to add tens of kilometers of beaches to the emirate in order to build a futuristic “city of tomorrow” for permanent residence and mass tourism.

The initiator of the Palm Jumeirah megaproject was Sheikh Mohammed, the absolute monarch of Dubai and a passionate collector of architectural curiosities. The shape of the date palm - the symbol of the Emirate of Dubai, from which the island of Palm Jumeirah got its name (from Arabic “crown of a palm tree”) - is not a whim of the monarch, but the result of complex design calculations. They made it possible to correlate the length of the coast and the building area in such a way as to accommodate a maximum of villas, hotels and restaurants. Having a diameter of only 5.5 kilometers, due to 17 “palm branches” the island received a coastline of 56 kilometers, which is 9 times more if it were round.

The construction of the Palm Jumeirah island from natural sand and stone among the waves of the Persian Gulf began in August 2001. Of course, it could have been built from concrete and steel, but Crown Prince Mohammed wanted the island to “merge” harmoniously with environment and refused to use artificial materials. This added difficulties for the builders - every day they had to ensure that the water did not wash away what was built yesterday. In total, 94 million m2 of sand were required to build the island.

Geographically, the island of Palm Jumeirah is very “lucky” - the warm, shallow waters off the coast of Dubai are inaccessible to storms, since they are closed from the ocean by the Strait of Hormuz. However, the builders surrounded the island with a 3.5-meter protective breakwater, the construction of which took 5.5 million m2 rock. If we sum up the entire volume of sand and stone required to create the Palm Jumeirah island, it would be enough to build a wall 2.5 meters high and the length of the equator.

The current appearance of Palm Jumeirah was finally formed when magnificent multi-storey hotels, yacht clubs, theme parks, shopping and entertainment centers, and on the “leaves” there are luxury villas, each with personal access to the sea. To date, about 1,400 villas and about 2,500 apartments in 20 spectacular buildings have already been built on the island. Among the latest on the island, the Oceana the Palm Jumeirah facility was completed, which includes a unique five-star residential complex and a “luxury” gated aparthotel.

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Today, the island has turned into a kind of “land of dreams”, in whose projects both “ordinary” wealthy foreigners and members of royal dynasties from all over the world are actively investing. The investment boom on Palm Jumeirah has been going on for several years now and there are quite objective reasons for this. Firstly, almost simultaneously with the start of construction of the island, the September 11 terrorist attack occurred in the United States, and then many investors rushed to transfer their capital from the West to new projects in the East. Naturally, taking on its fantastic shape with incredible speed, the island of Palm Jumeirah turned out to be the most financially profitable and safest choice.

Secondly, in 2003, the emirate authorities made an unprecedented decision - they were the first among the Gulf countries to provide foreigners with unlimited and unconditional ownership rights to any real estate purchased in Dubai. Thus, from that moment on, the purchase of housing on Palm Jumeirah as a market product acquired a clear and completely understandable image for the buyer, fully protected by international law. Based on this, we can say with a high degree of confidence that Palm Jumeirah in the coming decades will maintain one of the leading places in the global tourism and recreation industry, as well as in terms of the quality of life on its territory.

The success of the Palm Jumeirah project turned out to be very contagious, and in the future they plan to build a couple more “palm trees” in Dubai - one will appear to the west of the commercial port, and the second, near the Old City. However, today the “firstborn” - the island of Palm Jumeirah - is receiving all the attention. This is a friendly and devoid of any discomfort world of elite residential complexes, interspersed with parks, centers active rest and sports, shopping malls and restaurants. This is the very place where you can hide from the stuffiness and whirlwind of an urbanized space, where you want to live and relax for as long as possible.

An infrastructure of accommodation and recreation unprecedented in the Arab world was created on the islands. It includes world-famous hotels and resorts, luxury villas and huge apartments. There are no restrictions for foreigners. They can either purchase or rent real estate on the islands. In total, the Palm Islands host a huge number of different structures. These are luxury hotels, residential apartments with a 5-star level of service, water attractions, shopping centers, sports clubs, spas, cinemas and special water areas for scuba diving enthusiasts and much more. Palm islands have extended the coastline of Dubai by 520 km.

That was the plan...

So, the islands, or rather the peninsulas (since they are connected to the coastline) are made in the form of date palms, traditional for Arab countries (by the way, very revered in Islam). Each island is crowned with a crescent moon located at the top. It serves as a breakwater and at the same time is a Muslim symbol. Also, the islands are surrounded by protective barrier reefs. At the Palm Jebel Ali, they are inscriptions in Arabic, namely, quotes from the poems of the ruler of Dubai, Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum:

“To leave lines on the water requires insight; great people set great goals for themselves. Draw wisdom from the one who has it; not everyone sitting on a horse is a rider.”

“Take wisdom from the wise, It takes a man of vision to write on water, Not everyone who rides a horse is a jockey, Great men rise to greater challenges.”

It is he, the absolute monarch of the Emirate of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed, who is in charge of this entire amazing construction project. In fact, it is known that the UAE economy is based on oil. And 3% of all oil reserves of the emirates are located in Dubai. But the Maktoum sheikhs did not want to put up with such a situation, realizing that the entire economy should not rest on oil alone. That’s why they began to make Dubai the best tourist resort in the world. And now we can say that they wisely managed the money received from natural resources. It is expected that when all of Dubai's currently planned islands are built, it will add more than five hundred additional kilometers to the area.

Palm Islands became the first largest projects, which captivated the world with their uniqueness - the state company Al Nakheel Properties cost $7 billion to build.

Most of the villas are currently sold out. Marine real estate is in particular demand in the UK. Not only celebrities, but also wealthy people are eager to buy housing in Jumeirah. Currently more than 500 villas are occupied.

The problem of delivering tourists and islanders to Palma has been practically solved. It is planned to carry out movements on ultra-modern airships of the Skyship 600 model, as well as to launch a 5.5 km long monorail. The latter will begin operating in April 2009, and will connect the city with the palm island, and tests of the monorail in real operating conditions will begin in October this year.

Monorail cars from Japan will run on the line. The system is fully automatic, however, the driver will be constantly present in the cab. It is planned to transport up to 2.4 thousand passengers per hour in one direction in 4 separate trains, each of which consists of 3 cars. At the same time, the monorail will be integrated with the Dubai Metro.

Palm Jumeirah is the smallest, compared to its sisters Jebel Ali and Deira.

More than 1,000 bungalows will be built on the “second palm” beachfront, supported on stilts in a Polynesian style. It is planned to build more than 2,000 villas of different layouts. To attract wealthy investors, it is even proposed to create houses based on individual projects. It is predicted that the so-called “palm” of Jebel Ali will accommodate about 1.7 million inhabitants by 2020. Infrastructure construction is currently underway. Residential complexes will be built last. At 30,000 sq. m. it is planned to rebuild a complex of buildings made of glass and concrete, which in shape will resemble the sails of yachts. The crescent surrounding Palm Jebel Ali will house 4 theme parks - SeaWorld, Aquatica, Busch Gardens and Discovery Cove.

It is planned to build the region's first marine aquarium, which will display world-class water attractions, where you can look at dolphins, killer whales and other inhabitants of the underwater world. The Sea Village will become one of the most visited tourist destinations in the Middle East.

Palm Jebel Ali is approximately 22 kilometers and 17 minutes by boat from Palm Jumeirah. It is assumed that there will be a separate road junction leading to the island, through which it will be possible to get to Palma directly from Shaikh Zayed Road. This is the main street connecting shopping mall Dubai and the capital Abu Dhabi - it has 5 lanes in each direction and extends for 55 km.

The first 27 km were built between 1993 and 1998. Shaikh Zayed Road is the most important road in Dubai. It connects to highways such as Al Ain Road, Hatta Road, Emirates Road, and others. To ease the flow of cars - and it reaches 200,000 cars every day - this central street 13 interchanges were created.

Deira is an exotic palm tree with a wide, massive “trunk” and 41 branches. The man-made structure is topped with a crescent - a breakwater. Due to the size of the object, its construction is divided into several stages. Deira island will be located between Dubai Creek and Al Hamria Port. The Palm of Deira is designed to revitalize the old district of the same name in Dubai.

And finally, the last one for today, the island project Arab sheikhs called The World. Its construction was completed on January 10, 2008. These are 300 man-made islands, each of which is a mini-copy of one of the countries. All together they form geographical map world, which can be seen from a bird's eye view. The complex is located a few kilometers from the coast, between the Palm Islands. The archipelago not only repeats the shape and outline of the continents - each of the islands corresponds to the national color and traditions of the country that it symbolizes. Thus, the Mir complex will truly become a miniature copy globe. An improved copy, because the idea of ​​​​creating the most comfortable living conditions here will be brought to perfection. Comfortable villas, developed infrastructure, serene landscapes around, parks and lakes. All islands are for sale. The offer is really tempting: to live in your own Cuba or Africa. Therefore, the excitement around The World does not subside.

The idea to build a “copy of the globe” belongs to the ruler of Dubai, one of the most influential and richest people in the world, already mentioned at the beginning of our story, Sheikh Mohammed. Officially, the construction is being carried out by the same company Nakheel, but in reality, foreign contractors hired by the Dubai government take a greater part in the construction of the islands. The materials used for the islands are local. The sand for the islands was taken from the Persian Gulf, and the rock mass was also mined in the UAE.

The World archipelago is located 4 kilometers from the coast of Dubai. Communication between the Mira islands and the continent is assumed only by water and air. Let us remind you that Palms will be connected to the coastline of the metropolis through bridges. However, this difficulty does not particularly worry the new owners of the islands; a rich man who allowed himself to buy a plot of “water paradise” for 20-40 million dollars is quite capable of purchasing a yacht, or even a helicopter. It is planned to transport tourists to the islands by airships the latest models, as well as pleasure ships (ferries).

Currently, the large islands are mostly sold out, for example, “Australia”, “ New Zealand", "Ireland". Buyers have also been found for Finland, as well as Brunei, which investors plan to turn into capitals of luxury and fashion. Sheikh Maktoum included “Greenland” among his possessions, having built a luxurious villa on its territory, surrounded by tropical gardens.

Nakheel has reserved the right to manage 20 islands located in the " North America» of the Mir archipelago. This resort was called "Coral Islands". It is planned to build magnificent hotels, yacht marinas, and picturesque villages here.

Unlike the builders and ideological inspirers of the sculpting of the islands, environmentalists are not very happy about such serious changes taking place in the waters of the Persian Gulf. Concerns have been repeatedly expressed about the negative impact of artificial islands on the flora and fauna of the coastal zone. Skeptics say the islands could upset the natural balance and increased use of the Persian Gulf would lead to pollution. It should be noted that the Dubai government listens to the comments of the “greens”, since it is itself interested in the development of the tourism industry. In particular, artificial reefs are built around the islands, which create favorable conditions for living sea ​​creatures. On the central islands archipelago The World will install desalination and water purification plants. It is planned to use environmentally friendly energy sources.

The next problem that the authors of The World project encountered was the stagnation of water in the bays of the archipelago. This is difficult to deal with, because... the island complex is framed by a 26-kilometer-long breakwater 4 meters high, which undoubtedly makes it safe, but interferes with water renewal.

There are also a number of concerns that plague potential buyers - in particular, the reliability and durability of artificial islands. A number of experts believe that as a result of climate change on Earth and rising water levels in the World Ocean, within half a century anthropogenic land areas will be plunged into the abyss. Supporters of the project refute these statements, “reassuring” investors that their properties will remain afloat for at least 800 years.

The construction of The World archipelago, as well as its Palm sisters: Jumeirah, Deira and Jebel Ali, caused a flurry of emotions in the world community. A number of critics call Dubai's projects pompous and overly ambitious, especially against the backdrop of the looming food crisis and the catastrophic plight of developing countries. However, these statements do not stop the Emirates, whose standard of living is one of the highest in the world, but rather, on the contrary, encourage them to implement increasingly extravagant projects.

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In general, now I have shown you the process of creation, construction and layouts, and a little later I will show you what is actually happening there now in more detail!