It can be thought that the UAE is a country which was sent to the Earth from another planet. Once upon a time this state, when oil and unlimited deserts were its main sightseeing, seemed to set its target to be recorded in the history of mankind as no one other country in the world. Oil? Well, there's much oil in the world. The deserts are not special too. The Persian and the Oman Gulfs that wash the UAE and therefore its beach areas - wonderful! But does it make the UAE better than Egypt or Turkey?

And the Arab Emirates chose another way. They decided to amaze everyone with their luxury and riches. And the wealth is better demonstrated by its size. That is why here, as mushrooms, everything the hugest, that only the human fantasy can create rises. There are the Burj Khalifa Tower (the highest building in the world - 828 meters together with a spire), the highest (321 meters) and the most expensive hotel of the world - Dubai Burj Al-Arab, the world biggest park which is washed by the sea waters and occupies 2 hectares is situated here too. And the number of culinary achievements of the UAE has already exceeded 10 in the book of Guinness World Records.

So, creating the artificial islands the UAE wasn't the first in the world but it eclipsed everyone.

The construction of the world biggest archipelago of artificial islands named Palm Island began in 2001. Night and day 14 thousand of unskilled laborers who lived in a moored nearby vessel repeated under sea conditions the exploit of the infamous Egyptian pyramids builders. To create the artificial archipelago they were throwing million tons of sand and stones into the Persian Gulf for ages making forms of the most honoring and popular Eastern tree.

As a result, nearby the emirate shore having increased the shore line by 520 kilometers, three palms rose: Jebel Ali, Deira and Jumeira. Exactly the third one you can view in this panorama. The island is surrounded by the crescent that is a symbol of Islam and in this case is a breakwater too. The size of the island is 5 by 5 kilometers and the total area is comparable with eight hundred football fields. The island is connected with the mainland by a 300hundred bridge and the crescent is connected with a palm top by an underwater tunnel.

On a "trunk" and 16 "leaves" of the palm there are a lot of buildings. Anyone can acquire an apartment there: the variety of prices is from one and a half till ten million dollars. Though the buildings on the island stand closely to each other, it won't be an exaggeration that the luxury hotel Atlantis with its arcs and spires in eastern style stands by itself.

It covers a record territory of 46 hectares and it can be seen faraway not only due to its size but also thanks to unusual red color of all its buildings. The hotel consists of oceanarium, aqua park, dozens of restaurants and 1539 rooms including the room with an area of one thousand square meters. And one of the founders of the hotel quite truly noticed: "You can embody a project that costs 1.5 billion dollars not in every place of the Earth".

That is right. Palm Islands are the second man-made construction on the Earth (along with the Great Wall of China) that can be seen with the naked eye from the Moon. They became not only Dubai's symbol, but the symbol of all the Arab Emirates. This splendor can be admired precisely from the height and if not from the Moon then just with the bird's eye view in the panorama shot from a helicopter.

8 October 2010