Dubai's $12 Billion Island Nearly Failed. Now It's Worth MORE.

In December 2009 a headline went around the world: Dubai's famous Palm Jumeirah was sinking, five millimetres a year, two weeks after the company that owned it asked the banks for more time. In this film we follow the whole story: why a desert city ran out of beach, how about one hundred million cubic metres of sea sand and millions of tonnes of mountain rock became an island with no steel and no concrete, the rainbowing ships, the 11.5 km breakwater, the 200,000 shaken points against liquefaction, the road under the sea, the water that would not move, what the sea paid, the villas that were flipped before they were finished, the crash of 2008 and 2009, what the survey company and the developer said about the sinking claim, and how the Palm came back, from a record AED 161 million villa to the new Palm Jebel Ali. 0:00 "The Palm is sinking" 0:54 A city with no beach 3:01 No steel, no concrete 4:50 A wall against the sea 6:12 Sand that turns to liquid 7:21 A road under the sea 8:20 The water that would not move 9:14 What the sea paid 10:40 Selling a palm tree 12:46 The money runs out 14:56 Is the Palm sinking? 16:39 The comeback 18:35 The Palm today This film is for information and education only. Educational content only, not financial advice. Estimates are named as estimates, and claims that come only from press reporting are named as reported. Sources Memorial University of Newfoundland, Engineering Challenges of Dubai's Palm Jumeirah; Royal IHC, Creating Palm Islands; The View at The Palm (official); Van Oord; Nakheel press releases; Dubai Media Office The National; Gulf News; Khaleej Times; Arabian Business; Gulf Business; Al Jazeera; CNBC; The New York Times; Tunnelbuilder; Sotheby's International Realty UAE; Loyalty Lobby Mansourmoghaddam et al. 2022, Water 14(4):634; NASA Earth Observatory; Nature Middle East 2011; United Nations University (INWEH); IPCC AR6 sea level projections Dubai Department of Economy and Tourism (2025 visitor figures); Knight Frank (via CNBC); The B1M; Wikipedia articles on Palm Jumeirah, Palm Islands, Palm Monorail, Atlantis The Palm, Burj Al Arab (cross-checks) Footage and images NASA, ISS and ASTER images: public domain. Graphics: our own. Stock footage: Pexels (Pexels License). Music: original. Wikimedia Commons: ARG_Flickr (CC BY 2.0); Adrian Diack (CC BY-SA 2.0); Ahsan Younas (CC BY-SA 4.0); Aidan-dubai2024 (CC BY-SA 4.0); Bauer Kneissl (CC BY-SA 4.0); Bengin Ahmad (CC BY 2.0); Bjoertvedt (CC BY-SA 3.0); Diego Delso (CC BY-SA 4.0); Edgar El (CC BY 3.0); Fabio Achilli (CC BY 2.0); Fons Heijnsbroek (CC BY 4.0); Gabriel (CC BY 2.0); Guilhem Vellut (CC BY 2.0); HabibullahQureshi (CC BY-SA 4.0); Hansueli Krapf (CC BY-SA 3.0); Heba Hashem (CC BY-SA 4.0); Helmut Pfau (CC BY-SA 3.0); Imre Solt (CC BY-SA 3.0); Iwona Rege (CC BY-SA 4.0); Laika ac (CC BY-SA 2.0); Marc Ryckaert (CC BY-SA 4.0); Marco Becerra (CC BY 2.0); Meandmybrix (CC0); O.V.E.R.V.I.E.W. (CC BY 2.0); P.Lindgren (CC BY-SA 3.0); Robert Schediwy (CC BY-SA 3.0); Robert Scoble (CC BY 2.0); S.J. de Waard (CC BY-SA 3.0); Saaremees (CC BY-SA 4.0); Simon_sees (CC BY 2.0); Skatebiker (CC BY-SA 4.0); Tab59 (CC BY-SA 2.0); Tvabutzku1234 (CC0); WarriorsLuke (CC BY-SA 3.0); William Alden (CC BY-SA 2.0); giggel (CC BY 3.0); pe-sa (CC BY-SA 3.0); peter robinson (CC BY-SA 2.0); vastateparksstaff (CC BY 2.0). Public domain (via Wikimedia Commons): NASA (ISS crew photographs, ASTER), US government sources. #dubai #palmjumeirah #documentary