stretching five and a half kilometers into the arabian gulf lies the most

audacious engineering project the world has ever seen palm jumeirah is so vast
it can be seen from space built only from sand and rock threatened by
earthquakes violent storms and erosion from the sea it's remarkable that palm
jumeirah exist at all

engineer's must race against time and battle constantly with the forces
of nature this is a mega-structure they thought could never be built august two
thousand one the Arabian Gulf is a massive active Dubai is building one of the
biggest man-made islands in the world

engineers have a daunting task ahead of them because this is a construction

like no other all structures stand in defiance of nature most are built from
concrete and steel materials that are artificially strengthened that this massive
Island is being constructed out at sea using only natural materials sand and rock

the jewel of the Arab world a kingdom build on the profits of its oil reserves this
tiny emirate twice the size of London is one of the richest places in the Arab
world but it hasn'talways been like this 15 years ago to buy was a trading town
built on a creek over half a century later it's being transformed

now it's famous for gold trade and oil but there's a problem on the horizon
by 2016 the oil will have one house it'll mean disaster for the economy to buy
must find a new source of income the crown prince sheikh mohammed bin
rashid al maktoum has a two billion dollar plan to save his country he's ordered
his kingdom to transform itself is the world's number one luxury

tourist destination and the crown prince has a history of getting what he
wants to put 2 x on the map' he's already built one of the most luxurious
hotels in the world gelareh created top-class Gulf and race courses and it's
planning the world's tallest building but now the crown prince's big idea is mass
tourism to buy seems the perfect

spot it offers son almost every day of the year Gloria speeches and as your
C's five million tourists visit here annually now they want to triple this to 15
million but there's a problem the coastline is a mere 72 kilometers long not
enough space for all these extra people

but how do you make your coastline longer the crown prince's plan is to build a
massive Island and he wants it done by 2006 this daunting task force the Sultan
Ahmed bin Sulayem starting with a blank piece of paper he draws a circular
island he's delighted it increases the coastline by seven kilometers but for the
crown prince it's nowhere near enough

it's back to the drawing board this time the Crown Prince works on the
design himself putting it about to increase the beachfront nothing seems
right but then he comes up with an audacious plan

what better for a paradise island in the shape of a palm tree five and a half
kilometers across it increases the coastline by a whopping 50 six
kilometers mine times more beachfront in the circular island but no one has
ever built an island this size and shape before
the extraordinary plan is to build the city has seen the part will be covered with
luxury villas shopping malls and restaurants the crescent-shaped breakwater link
to the plan by tunnel will hold 22 hotels the easiest way to build such a massive
structure at sea is to use concrete and steel but this doesn't fit with the crown
prince's plan his idea creates an added challenge to blend in with its
surroundings

the island must be made entirely from natural materials the palm shaped
island will only be made from sand 94 million cubic meters of it all that protects
this from the sea will be a breakwater 5.5 million cubic meters of rock together
there's enough sand and rock to build the two and a half meters high wall
circling the entire world

make this audacious plan reality to buy needs the best engineers on the planet
a worldwide search needs to Northern Europe and Holland experts in land
reclamation the Dutch have increased Hollins land mass by thirty-five percent
the dutch team are immediately booked for the job

the first thing we must prove is that it's possible to build an island out in the
Arabian Gulf and that it will stay there they know the only way to keep the island
in position is to surrounded by a breakwater but just how big does this c defense
need to be to find out the searches must calculate the strength of device stores
the height of the wave and tidal surges

and what affect global warming having raising the sea level the biggest fear for
all coastal engineers a massive freak waves these waves build up over long
distances post by persistent winds and large currents they destroyed nearly
everything in their path

but the island build is a lucky the research teams worked out the Arabian Gulf is
the perfect place to build this mega structure on average the Gulf is only 30
meters deep and it's only 160 kilometers wide it's too short and too shallow for
catastrophic waves to build up but the team know they will

go get em I'll stores every winter these intense normally storms bring high winds
into meter waves that will better the structure the searches must also factor in
the worst case scenario the storm that hits once in a hundred years the team do
the final calculations to protect this fragile island the great water must be at
least three meters high above the waves and 11 and a half

kilometers long but just when the engineers thought they were ahead they're
given another challenge the developers in charge of this mega structure want to
start construction immediately before the research is complete it's a huge
gamble that could come back to bite them if they haven't got it

right the whole structure might be washed away as well as starting before
they're ready the engineers must perform a miracle normally a project like this
would take 15 years to build but they must do it in five before work can begin
the engineers must first workout just where is awesome