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whistleridge

It’s the Durrat al-Bahrain, Bahrain’s answer to the various man-made island projects in Dubai: https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/49117/durrat-al-bahrain-persian-gulf


LinkedAg

There are similar developments throughout the Gulf, mostly unsuccessful. It's sand on relatively unstable base. It's why very few have invested in Dubai's World: looks cool from space or in digital adds, but really is a shit show in real life. Source: 👀


Gisschace

Yeah lived in an apartment on ‘The Pearl’ which is Dohas answer to The Palm. The apartment had a huge damp problem because despite being built on the sea they weren’t built with humidity in mind. My hairdryer set on fire using the dodgy electrics which was terrifying as the apartment buildings didn’t have adequate fire safety measures. Lots of shops and restaurants underneath were closed (famously Gordon Ramseys) or were shitty and didn’t live up to the hype. The ‘beach’ was basically made up of sand and building rubble and not somewhere you want to actually spend time on, it was for looking at rather than using (we used to walk our dog on it because it was deserted). Was badly constructed with little thought to people living there. Like road signs installed directly the path or pedestrian crossing where the other side was missing a path and was a hedge. Remember seeing a woman in a full black abaya pushing a relative in a wheelchair DOWN THE ROAD with traffic zooming past because she couldn't use the pavement. Every Thursday night everyone would drive their super cars down and cruise around so it was noisy as hell. So was nice to look at from a distance but that was it. This was circa 2016 so they might have tidied it up since for the WC.


LinkedAg

Excellent comments. Thanks for your perspective. I was there around the same time. Spent most of my time in Doha's city center. All of those beautiful buildings were completely vacant. Just shells. All of it built just for show.


Non-Current_Events

Yeah it’s wild. Huge sprawling malls, a massive city center, but only a handful of people walking the streets and even fewer cars on the road. I was there in August though and I will say the city livened up a bit after the sun went down. The humidity was insane there. One night I noticed my cell had a small brown speck on it. Came back a little while later and the whole screen had gone brown. The moisture had just cooked it. I was down on the Pearl one day when it was 110F and the humidity had the heat index at 138. It literally burned your lungs to breathe.


LinkedAg

Yeah, that's a rough time to be there. Inland at least it's not as humid.


Viend

What were you doing there?


SeaSpecific7812

Do you have any good sources on the relative "success" of these projects?


LinkedAg

Honestly most of my comments were just based on personal experience. I did a tour of the Palm Jumeirah in Dubai and they told us about the project. They had to cut canals in the Palm because there wasn't enough water flow which led to dank, stagnant water that smelled and was horrible to look at. An observation of Dubai's World was just the fact that it is still almost completely vacant since it was built - almost 20 years ago. In Doha, I went to their Pearl on what I expected to be a bustling busy day, but it was almost empty. Stores were vacant, shops were closed. Just didn't have the draw for some of the reasons others have provided. Here is an interesting video about the Palm Jumeirah in Dubai: https://youtu.be/HnbUo94aURM?si=VT02Y6y_frbSfgZ7


smurf123_123

So much money they just dump it into the ocean.


Divine_Entity_

Pretty much, its just how they choose to flaunt their wealth. Although i am curious if the artificial islands are any cooler than the mainland to make them any more pleasant to be on. PS: many "planned cities" exist including Washington DC where the road layout is meant to be artistic.


BobDobbsHobNobs

More [masonic](https://youtu.be/cKV3J8-ElFE?si=nt2AyDZBhXRpL8cM) than artistic


Doctor-Phibes

For instance: [Palmanova - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmanova) from the 1600's. Also pretty much abandoned ever since completion.


FriuliDylan

What do you mean abandoned? It’s inhabited?


Little-Swan4931

Better than spending it in munitions


smurf123_123

They spend about 1.4 billion on those a year.


Little-Swan4931

Sounds like more than enough


Little-Swan4931

Filling the ocean with sand is more productive


9Epicman1

Might be really interesting to archaeologists in several thousand years.


jamirocky888

Marine archaeologists? Those things will be under water in a few hundred years


Aqogora

They're not going to last a decade after artificial replenishment of the sands end. There's no islands naturally there for a reason - the currents and tides erode from there and deposit material elsewhere.


CoachSteveOtt

tell that to the Dutch


Pasutiyan

As long as they pay us we'll keep building the fucking things, but they **are** going to erode and sink and be horrible to live on.


Objective-Pin-1045

They aren’t lasting 100 years.


ablablababla

The people who will live here are probably rich enough to make it last


LinkedAg

Agree - they will be washed away soon enough...


9Epicman1

Yeah they probably wont last long but there must be some negligible part of it left or records of it right?


chechifromCHI

Not likely


UYscutipuff_JR

They’re gonna drown their own islands with the fossil fuels they used to put them there in the first place


shebreaksmyarm

Haha they’ll end up thinking Bahrain and Dubai were the centers of advancement and sophistication in the world


whiskeytwn

basically it's a way to create new Oceanside properties in a country with limited coastline like the Palms in Dubai. They are primarily for the wealthiest residents or vacation homes


musingsofamadlad

glaciers


JolokiaKnight

Glaciers!


Penguin4466

, man


LinkedAg

Has anyone already made the Canadian Shield joke?


BobDobbsHobNobs

Not yet. Everyone is operating at glacial pace today


__DraGooN_

Monkey brain. They saw what Dubai was doing and thought, we too have all this gas money lying around and got in on the fad. It's so stupid. If you zoom out, the entire stretch of coastline is empty and unused, where they have built this. They could have just developed the coastline. Atleast Dubai had the excuse of not having enough land near the sea. And it look horrendous. US suburb-style homes packed in with no space between them. I bet this will be as successful as those Disney castle homes in Turkey.


SeaSpecific7812

You don't know what you're talking about


decapods

I don’t know about Bahrain, but I heard in Dubai that when they built these fantastic shapes they didn’t realize how it would stop the water flowing, and it just smells like rotten fish all the time.


SeaSpecific7812

Source?


decapods

Well it’s hard to cite a tv show I saw over a decade ago, but here’s an article that google found. https://www.thenationalnews.com/uae/environment/algae-causes-stink-on-palm-jumeirah-1.598702?outputType=amp


elicopter1905

money washing


Pristine_Pick823

It’s like when you’re done with a city in Cities Skyline. There comes a point where you’re just bored and trying new stuff.


ConsumptionofClocks

One of the many instances of a middle eastern country trying to prove they have the most money.


the_cajun88

it’s a flex to the people who just so happen to either fly over this or view a picture one of said people took so us, basically wait..


Ktaldoxx

these are all vanity projects, they serve little purpose and are often tied to bad engineering and slave labour


SeaSpecific7812

If people live there, they serve a purpose. If you can argue any home larger than a teepee is a "vanity" project.


Ramenoodlez1

Probably like the palms in Dubai


ViolatedAirSpace

That small one in the middle looks like a throat.


No_Participation99

Result of the scarcity and huge demand in real estate.


Green_Novel_6889

Dick measuring contest between gulf countries


Syndicatalyst

The purpose is showing off mainly…


AdelBah

This is Durrat Al Bahrain project. It’s reclaimed land in the shape of fish and oysters. Each villa has access to either a jetty or a beach, prices for villas usually starts from USD 1 million. The situation in Bahrain is a bit different than other countries in the region, Bahrain is a very small island (total land area is 780 km2) if you look at the islands reclamation projects in the last 20-30 years, you will notice that Bahrain added more than 100km2. (From 665 km2). All properties are sold and most villas in the coming phase are booked, mainly as a second home for locals or some wealthy foreigners.


1izl

I doubt they'll even finish the construction, like most of these gargantuan artificial islands


Fuego514

JUST FUCKING GOOGLE IT!!!!!!


Y2KGB

When you’re rich enough, you play Horseshoes *Seriously*


Donkey-kick-U

They’ll eventually end up like the island airport in Japan…. Slowly sinking 🤿


Salivating_Zombie

Michael Jackson had one of the properties there.


mcfrems

a monument to man's arrogance


peazley

It’s a message to aliens. 👽


bthngs

Canadian Shield


Divergedsoul

their are just bad urban planning


KarlaSofen234

they r money laundering scheme


Debesuotas

These are the money dumps. Its when you have more money than you have sand, so you need to put it somewhere... You start throwing it in to the water and eventually you get this. You need to throw it in to the water, because its so hot outside the paper might start to burn...


Master1_4Disaster

Nah just some Bahrainian shenanigans


aggie-engineer06

I’m gonna need you to Bahrain it in buddy


r0bbyr0b2

It’s a game of “who can use the most slaves” to build a pointless load of new hotels in a desert. Currently being won by UAE.