Palm Jebel Ali
The Palm Jebel Ali Umar began construction in October 2002 and was expected to be completed in mid-2008. Once it has been completed, it will encircle the Dubai Waterfront. The project, which is 50% larger than the Palm Jumeirah project, will include six marinas, a water theme park, a sea village, homes built on stilts, and boardwalks that encircle the fronds of the palm and spell out an Arabic poem by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum:
Take wisdom from the wiseIt takes a man of vision to write on water
Not everyone who rides a horse is a jockey
As of early October 2007, construction of the island was on schedule. The breakwater was completed in December 2006 and infrastructure work began in April 2007. Major construction will not begin until most of the infrastructure work is complete.
One of the first buildings on the Palm Jebel Ali is already planned. Nakheel Properties invited several architects to design a building on a 300,000 meters squared area. The winning design was a building by Royal Haskoning, who has also worked on several other projects in Dubai. The building can be seen here.
From the first signs of a slowing Dubai property market, the prices of properties being sold on the Palm Jebel Ali were reported to have fallen by 40% in two months: the fall being attributed to the financial crisis of 2007–2010. Due to the 2008 market decline, work stopped on the Palm Jebel Ali.
In 2012, the first phase of four theme parks will open on the crescent. These parks, which together will be called "World of Discovery," will be developed and operated by Busch Entertainment Corporation. The parks include SeaWorld, Aquatica, Busch Gardens and Discovery Cove. The World of Discovery will be located at the top of the crescent, which will be in the shape of an orca (reminiscent of Shamu.)
Read more about this topic: Palm Islands
Famous quotes containing the words palm and/or ali:
“When an immortal passion breathes in mortal clay;
Our hearts endure the scourge, the plaited thorns, the way
Crowded with bitter faces, the wounds in palm and side,
The vinegar-heavy sponge, the flowers by Kedron stream....”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
“That was always the difference between Muhammad Ali and the rest of us. He came, he saw, and if he didn’t entirely conquer—he came as close as anybody we are likely to see in the lifetime of this doomed generation.”
—Hunter S. Thompson (b. 1939)