Dubai is famous for its luxurious Palm Islands, the well known manmade archipelago off of the city’s coast. Development of the World Islands began in September of 2003. World Islands is a group of islands which is shaped like a map of the world. Contrast to the Palm Islands, it seems the World Islands may have been a disaster of global proportions. 321 million cubic meters of sand—about the volume of 150 Major League Baseball stadiums, up to the top of the foul poles and including the stands—the World Islands cost over $14 billion to build. With one island for every country, the World Islands together covered over 20 square miles of the Persian Gulf. Situated just three miles far off the coast of Dubai, the 300 islands that made up the World Islands are supposed to resemble a world map when viewed from above. Sadly for the islands’ developers, the archipelago turned out to be only vaguely recognizable. Due to weathering, sinking, and erosion, the World Islands have lost their well-defined borders. Central America is practically nonexistent, Australia is awkwardly made up of five rectangular strips of sand, and Europe, Africa, and Asia have merged into a largely indistinguishable blob.