The World (in Dubai)
Wednesday, 3rd January 2007 by James Turnbull
Possibly the most ambitious of Dubai's land reclamation projects, The World is an archipelago of 300 islands laid out to represent countries of the world.
The first developed island is owned by Formula 1 driver Michael Schumacher. The $7 million piece of land was gifted to him by Dubai's crown prince, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum and is located in the Arctic (although I'm sure he would have preferred Germany).
There's various rumours of who owns the other islands, including reports that Rod Stewart spent $33 million to buy mini-Britain.
The entire project is scheduled for completion in 2008, and over in what looks like it might be Spain, we see a boat "spraying" sand to create the island.
Official Website and thanks to Brad, Catherine, alexandrecavaco, Others.
It appears Schumacher’s island is in the Arctic, not Antarctica.
I thought Richard Branson was buying Mini-Britain? (Insert cheap dig about Mini-Scotland being worth a fiver.)
Jordo: So it is! Thanks.
Lee: I don’t think anyone knows for sure who’s bought Britain, but Branson was just rumoured as the owner after he planted a flag and he later denied it.
Ha bloody ha on the cheap dig.
Aw, I love you guys really. Apologies and big hugs?
But seriously, I doubt Rod Stewart has bought it; most probably going to be some business man we average folk have never heard of.
Yea maybe its just me but i dont see the resemblence to the world at all. Especially compared to the projected plan
http://guide.theemiratesnetwork.com/living/dubai/images/the_world/the_world_dubai.jpg
This might be a good time to point out this little compilation of dubai photos:
http://dubai.isnuts.googlepages.com.nyud.net:8080/
@brandon: ‘The World’ has “a different north” than the world. 🙂 ‘The World’s’ south is orientaded towards the coastline of Dubai…if that helps.
its got every country in the world.
except Israel.
(bit of a sore point for the Arabs i guess…)
WOW……Dubai looks amazing. Sad how most all American’s know about Dubai is the “ports deal” nonsense.
I dont suppose its much of an issue for Schumacher and his ‘neighbours’ but what do they do if they just want a loaf and a pint of milk? Do you think one island will have a corner shop on it?
I think that boat is spraying sand onto France. And Britain doesn’t even exist in that photo.
Yep, it’s France. While we’re talking about France, excuse my French, but HOLY SHIT. How f*cked up can a single city be?
National Geographic Magazine ran a story about Dubai this month. It really gets you thinking about the cost of all this madness… How many workers work long hors for slave labor wages and live in crappy, cramped camps? Plus, look at that ship spraying sand. Silt is just pouring into the sea behind it. Seriously, building huge islands has got to have a huge impact on the environment.
Is there any end to this craziness? I can see it all now: “The hostile takeover of the entire world will be a massive project involving record numbers of soldiers. When complete, it will be the single largest empire in history. It is expected to be finished in 2015.”
I think this is one of the dumbest things I have ever heard of.
Haven’t these people heard about global warming and rising sea levels? The latest estimates are two to twelve feet by 2100.
It doesn’t look as good as the artist’s impressions… why are the northern parts, as well as South America, all massed into one big sandbar?
Finally ! I’ve been looking for “the world” in google earth for weeks. Thanks, googleseightseeing 🙂
Guys, take this from the official source: GB has been sold to the man that planted the flag. Why else would they allow anyone to do that? Michael Schumacher is not an owner on The World nor has he or ANYONE been gifted an island! Come on, they are in the business of SELLING real estate here not gimmicry or give aways! The World does not look like the picture perfect artistic renderings (which, mind you, were not made by Nakheel but conjured up by the press) because they never intended it to be a sharp accurate world map! I also know that 2 hollywood names and a british rock star have bought, but cant take any names 🙂
Check out Larry Niven’s sf classic SF novels “Ringworld” for a description of a full scale map of Earth. It’s built on a huge structure about 1 AU radius around a sunlike star.
I’ve not been able to find a copy of the ringworld sequel (children? engineers?) at my local library, but I’ve yet to find an answer to this question online or in “throne” or the first part of the fourth book. The question is: the ringworld is relatively flat, compared to the circumference of planets; so what kind of projections are the “1:1 maps” ? hopefully not mercator! I imagine Mollweide.
“Throne” mentions the SF bay. The ringworld is ancient, IIRC. the fall of cities more recent, hence, has continental drift affected the shape of earth since the map was made? what was the continental layout during the beginning of the evolution of homo habilis?
The ringworld is not actually that ancient, it’s only one million years old. There wouldn’t be any noticable continental drift in that time. However if the protectors took their snapshot during a different phase of glaciation, the coastline would be quite different.
check out this link i found on youtube. it gives you an insight of what life would really be like on THE WOELD:
Hi. Some new amazing pictures, courtesy of DubaiBuy.info:
http://www.dubaibuy.info/photo.asp
1) On the link above you can see the ENTIRE satellite image of DUBAI, taken this month. You can see the 2 pretty Palms and The World. The 3rd Palm is coming up.
2) Theres a beautiful aerial image of The World around 94% complete.
3)Here, theres a blog of an even recent satellite image of The World, taken this month: http://dubaibuy.blogspot.com/
4)Below the satellite image is also a video on YouTube on how life will be on The World: http://dubaibuy.blogspot.com/
Who bought australia
This post wasn’t part of an Island Week, but here’s a comment about it to end Island Week 4 … apparently The World is no more – brought to a halt by the same financial crisis hitting the, uh, ‘real’ world. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/travel/news/article6831481.ece