Claim Your Own Piece of The World!
The World is a vast and mind boggling project currently being developed in
Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates. It's inspirations came from the Palms, a set
of three huge artificial islands that began construction off the coast of Dubai
in 2002.
The Palms were created primarily to
cater to tourists, offering huge
shopping malls,
theme parks, residential districts available for sale to expatriates and
nationals, and luxury hotels. They got their name from the fact that the Palms
are designed in the shape of Palm Trees, with the head of each tree forming a
breakwater protecting the rest of the island.
Following in the footsteps of the Palms, the World was created to cater to high
end individual buyers and corporations. The world is, in essence, an artificial
archipelago of almost 300 islands patterned in the shape of the global map. The
sheer scale of this project is astounding, and is estimated to see it's
completion by the year 2008. The World project was started by Al Nakheel
Properties, the same group that began work on the Palms.
Each individual island within the World is estimated to be anything from 6 to 21
acres in size, depending on the country it is representing on the map. Travel
between the islands can only be achieved by boat or aircraft, and enterprising
companies have already begun to offer yachts, amphibious planes and helicopters
for the transportation of the World's residents.
The island designs fall into four categories based on the housing constructions
they hold. There are residential homes on the World, there are luxury estates,
the proverbial "dream home" for the ultra-rich, and community islands housing
several residences. Most of the islands also hold their own constructed marinas
for yachts to facilitate travel between the islands.
The entire length of the World is protected by an immense breakwater stretching
nine kilometers across, incidentally forming the top spherical half of the "globe"
in it's design. The entire surface of the World is not necessarily spherical,
however, but for safety and taking the breakwater into account, is actually
shaped like an oval. It's area coverage including water area stretches six
kilometers wide and nine across.
It is located some 4 kilometers away from one of the equally-astounding Palms,
the Palm Jumeirah, which of the three Dubai Palms was designed to cater the most
to tourists, international travelers, and residents that preferred fast,
urbanized lifestyles.
There have already been major purchases made by world famous celebrities for
some segments of the world, including Rod Stewart, David Beckham, and Micheal
Schumacher. Aside from these famous and powerful celebrities, a few
multinational corporations have also made discreet purchases of islands in the
world for development. In most of these cases these private firms are creating
housing projects, and the next year or two will most likely see offers to the
general public for individual residences within the community-type islands.
Some of the multinationals are also considering setting up shopping malls, water
theme parks, and other recreational centers in the World to cater not only to
it's residents, but to tourists and international travelers as well, though
until these projects actually see completion this is mere speculation. To date,
the entire set up of The World seems geared towards individual residences, while
the Palms lean more towards support for Dubai's tourism.