For Sale -- The World

[Richard]

Ever wish the world was smaller? The World is a man-made archipelago of 300 islands in the shape of a world map. The World is being built primarily using sand dredged from the sea. Each island ranges from 23,000 m2 to 84,000 m2 (250,000–900,000 square feet or 5.7–21 acres) in size, with 50–100 m of water between each island. The development will cover an area of 9 km in length and 6 km in width, surrounded by an oval breakwater.

The only means of transport between the islands will be by boat and helicopter. Prices for the islands will range from $15-45 million (USD). The average price for an island will be around $25 million (USD). Dredging started in 2004 and as of March of 2007 The World is around 90% complete. According to the National Geographic Channel (The Best of Megastructures) the overall price for the World is $14 Billion US Dollars.

 

[KennyFlys]

Dubai has gone hog wild on creating such places. They've just about run out of sand fill options at this point.

 

[fgcason]

That's um, something like $2.1 to $2.5 million per acre of sand.
Neat concept but I'll pass...

Transportation by boat or helicopter only? How about seaplane or swim? 50 to 100 meters isn't even a good swim.

 

[steingar]

Yeah, god knows they don't have enough sand in the Arabian Peninsula as it is. Good thing they created a bit more with those islands.

 

[TangoWhiskey]

I saw a program on this last week... the price is so steep that only developers are buying the land. The original intent was for rich individuals to buy islands for their own personal use, but that's not how it's ending up now...

 

[mantakos]

$25M for a spot of sand? I think their marketing plan may have overestimated the size of the billionaire cat demographic.
-harry

 

[steingar]