MOST Impressive Artificial Islands - Man Made Islands

massive man-made islands secluded billionaire paradises and much more it's time for the top 15 most amazing man-made islands number 15 tilapushi the first man-made island on this list stinks and that's not just a personal opinion this artificial island located to the west of malay the capital of the maldives was created purely as a rubbish dump or municipal landfill to give it its more official and pleasing title built on reclaimed coral reefs tilapushi came into existence in 1992 to resolve malay's garbage predicament which kind of worked in a way because it's now a dumping ground for over 300 tons of rubbish per day today tilapushi has a landmass of more than 4.6 million feet but not all of that is taken up with garbage you see not only does the constant stream of trash mean that the island is growing at a rate of about one square meter per year but in november 1997 authorities started leasing sections of land for industrial purposes such as boat manufacturing cement packing methane gas bottling and large-scale warehousing all of which add to the pollution produced by this unpleasant piece of land used batteries as best as lead and all kinds of nasty things are finding their way into the water leading local ecologists to describe it as a toxic bomb even the international community have expressed concern with the bbc describing the island as apocalyptic which is not one of those words you want to see in your vacation brochure number 14 balboa island in case you were wondering balboa island is not home to a society of down on their luck boxers played by sylvester stallone located in newport beach california balboa island is a chain of three artificial islands that include the balboa island little balboa island and collins island and with around 3 000 residents is one of the densest communities in orange county connected to the mainland by a bridge along with several ferries the island is a thriving community with restaurants craft shops bakeries a post office a fire station and a variety of other small businesses originally a mudflat surrounded by swampland brothers james and robert mcfadden purchased the land which became newport harbor in the 1860s and established a successful shipping wharf but sand bars and a treacherous bay entrance eventually caused the mcfadden brothers to construct a large pier that would become the balboa peninsula they eventually sold their property and the swamplands that were to become the harbor lido and balboa islands to william stepp w s collins and c.a hanson who saw the resort and recreation potential of the area bilted dredge started piling sand and sealed up on a mudflat called snipe island and balboa island was born over the ensuing decades property owners on the island would struggle with poor roads flimsy sidewalks regular flooding and sewers that poured directly into the bay but these days it's one of newport harbor's most desirable places to live number 13 no man's land fort united kingdom this may be one of the smallest islands on our list but it was built to carry out a vital function even if that function was based more on caution and fear rather than anything which ever came to pass in reality no man's fort is one of palmerston's forts which includes spit bank fort st helens fort and horse sand fort it was constructed 1.4 miles off the coast of the isle of wight between 1867 and 1880 to protect the town of portsmouth england from the threat of a seaborne invasion from france and was finally completed after the threat of that invasion had well and truly passed which has to be more than a little annoying not least because it cost around 400 000 pounds and in the 1800s that wasn't exactly peanuts apparently the forts did serve a useful although pretty morbid purpose back in world war ii where they were used to defend the portsmouth dockyards and that wasn't a great job to have mainly because the prospective employees specifically chosen for their inability to swim so had no chance of escaping their duty these days however it's been renovated into a luxury hotel complete with a swimming pool jacuzzi a gym two restaurants and a roof garden so you could almost forget that they were once used as a death trap number 12 willingdon island india this is the largest artificial island in india and while it may not be the most glamorous or eye-catching man-made island on this list it may just take the prize as most useful willingdon island is part of the city of kochi in kerala and was first created in 1936 during the construction of the modern port of kochi named after the first earl of willington who was the viceroy of india at the time the island soon became a vital part of the british war effort during world war ii the royal air force constructed a large aerodome on the island used the newly constructed malabar hostel to house servicemen and the island became a thriving military base since 1947 however when india gained independence the island has evolved into something quite different it may still have a military connection being the headquarters of the southern naval command of the indian navy but it's also a major tourist center and hub of international trade there are a number of post offices banks travel agencies souvenir shops and a variety of housing for employees of the port not to mention five schools and a kindergarten for their children number 11 fort boneyard france well this is certainly the only man-made island on our list which ended up being a popular tv game show it may look like somebody just dropped a massive bathtub in the middle of the sea but fort boyard located just off the western coast of france between the islands of oleron and x was designed to serve a very serious purpose except it didn't you see while the fortress itself is almost 200 years old the idea was first conceived back in 1660 only to be scrapped when louis xiv's leading engineer wrote it off with this sassy comment sire it would be easier to grasp the moon with the teeth than to attempt such a task in this location when napoleon came along however interest in fort boyard was reignited and construction finally began in 1804 with workers dumping 75 000 cubic meters of rocks onto the seafloor well until the british decided to attack in 1809 at which point the whole thing came to a grinding halt it was finally completed in 1857 under the rule of louis philippe resulting in the oval-shaped oddity that we can see today capable of supporting 250 soldiers and 74 guns sadly due to advances in weapons technology fort boyard was obsolete pretty much as soon as it was built which led to its ultimate fate as the location for a french game show number 10 camphor's dam island perhaps the most notable thing about this island apart from the fact that it's in the shape of a giant s is that it's used as a breeding ground for flamingos and no that doesn't mean that it's full of romantic candlelit flamingo restaurants or flamingos who've met on flamingo dating app and want to take their flamingo relationships to the next level it lies on the camper's damn lake in kimberley south africa and since its construction back in 2006 almost 50 000 lesser flamingos have been calling this place home camphor's damn island was constructed by ikapa mining using 26 000 tons of material and ornithologists designed the place with a thousand artificial nest turrets making sure that the dam harbored high concentrations of blue-green algae and diatoms always a favorite item on the flamingo menu of international cuisine the dam and its surrounding wetland area are designated as a conservation zone but pollution and the development of nearby land have become a really big concern for conservationists number nine the pearl qatar there can't be many islands which have been built purely for foreign nationals although if anyone offers to build me my own island then i'll be quite happy to get on a plane tomorrow the pearl is supposed to resemble a string of pearls as a nod to qatar's past in the pearl industry and due to the island being built on one of the country's old pearl diving sites with an area of almost 4 million square meters the pearl was the first land in qatar to be made available for ownership by foreign nationals and as such its population has risen by several thousand over the past 10 years the pearl is divided into 12 districts some of which are residential some commercial and each of which has its own unique architectural style and no matter where you are it's all very luxurious and very expensive and with rich tenants come the need for high-end goods fine dining and in the case of the pearl a variety of stupidly expensive car showrooms including maserati ferrari and rolls-royce to name but a few number eight artificial islands of uros the islands of uros peru look like something from another age and despite their modest size are possibly one of the most fascinating examples on our list and they're mysterious as they are fascinating there's a legend of course as there are with most unexplained things that the uru people were originally from the amazon having migrated to lake titicaca in the pre-columbian era when they were unable to find land due to oppression by the local people so they did what any homeless person would do bundled the reeds that were growing at the side of the lake and constructed their own floating island community this not only gave them a home to call their own but also provided protection from their horrible neighbors and some of the islands having their own watchtowers an average size island measures around 50 by 50 feet with the largest being around the size of a football field and with a variety of thatched houses each belonging to members of an extended family in recent times the uros have become a big tourist attraction in peru which means they don't have to rely solely on hunting and fishing to survive and have found a thriving market for handicrafts i suppose it's a bit more exotic than an etsy store number seven spiral island if you thought the uru people lived in a modest way then take a look at this thing these days we all feel a responsibility to recycle our non-biodegradable goods but british artist richard reishi sowa took it to an entirely new level spiral island in mexico was quite literally man-made by one man using more than a quarter of a million plastic bottles he started the project back in 1998 constructing his island in a lagoon near puerto eventras on the caribbean coast of mexico the bottles were held together in large nets which acted as floats for a plywood and bamboo structure which in turn supported a two-story house complete with a solar oven a self-composting toilet and three beaches of his very own sadly spiral island was destroyed by a hurricane in 2005 but juke can't keep a good man down and soho was soon working on a new project called joy z island and this new and improved island also had three branches along with a new house two ponds a wave-powered washing machine and a solar powered waterfall at one point he even opened up the islands for tours but it's no longer in the lagoon let's just hope it's been recycled number six pepper home pepper home is a strange sight to say the least it serves as the end point for a bridge which starts in denmark reaches this random island and then seemingly stops there with no rhyme or reason in reality however there's an entrance to a tunnel on the island which then goes on to malmo and sweden as a bridge spanning the entire width between malma and copenhagen would have been completely impractical not only would it have interfered with obstacle-free zones around the nearby airport but it would also allow ships to pass without worrying about crashing into a new bridge that wasn't quite high enough it's not really the bridge we're interested in here though it's the island itself whatever home you see is basically a biological experiment protected by very strict laws and even biologists are only allowed one visit to the island per year the concept of pepper home and indeed the prediction for it was that due to the lack of human involvement nature would take over colonize it and the island would flourish on its own and it certainly seems to have worked since then scientists have registered 454 species of plants 20 species of spiders 12 species of birds along with rabbits butterflies beetles and a variety of other insects which gives you a good idea of what life would be like if human beings hadn't come along with our litter pollution and industry and social media influencers number five the thumbs island the thumbs islands sound like they should be located right next to the finger islands but sadly they don't actually exist it's simply an acronym you see the islands were originally named for the oil companies who bid for the original operating contract texaco humble unicow mobile and shell because the thumbs island were only ever constructed to tap into the east wilmington oil field originally constructed in 1965 the islands underwent a bit of a makeover two years later although in name only since 1967 they've been known as the astronaut islands and each of them has been renamed in honor of nasa's astronauts who sadly lost their lives in the course of duty there's island freeman for example named for ted freeman who was the first astronaut to die during active duty and then there's the three islands that are named after apollo 1 astronauts roger chafee virgil gus grissom and ed white who sadly perished in a horrific accident on the launch pad in order to make the islands a little more pretty however various structures have been used to disguise the drill rigs such as a condo a waterfall and various other forms of landscaping although i can't help feeling that maybe a space-based theme would be more appropriate number four amwash artificial islands like the pearl in qatar this is a group of man-made islands in the persian gulf they were devised to offer 100 freehold ownership to expatriates living in bahrain you see waterfront property while very sought after was also in very short supply so the plan was to build a lot more of them for wealthy foreign nationals who had just a few hundred thousand spare dollars burning a hole in their pocket located just northeast of bahrain near the coast of moharak island the amwash islands were recently reclaimed from the relatively shallow seas surrounding it to create land for the stunning collection of residential and commercial buildings now on offer these days the islands even offer a variety of hotels such as the grove hotel the art rutana the sea loft ramada hotel and suites and the dragon hotel the fact the islands resemble a massive horseshoe from above could be a sign of good luck but then if you can afford to live in this place then you've already been pretty lucky in life number three ilo [Music] when you hear the word island you usually think of the stereotypical desert variety small round maybe with one palm tree and possibly even one castaway desperately trying to fit a message into a bottle either way you certainly don't expect an island to be long green and right in the middle of paris at 850 meters long and only 11 meters wide at its widest point the ilo signia sits in the center of the sun like a long green boat with three bridges crossing it at various points although it's completely uninhabited the island does feature a tree-lined walkway called the path of swans for anyone who fancies a romantic stroll after all you're in the city of love so why wouldn't you the island was constructed in 1827 to protect the port of grinnell but perhaps the most striking feature of the ilocenia today is something you'd expect to find in another very famous city many miles away from paris itself the statue of liberty or at least a replica of it a quarter of the size of the original which was always facing west towards its larger new york-based sister [Music] number two palm islands the palm islands of dubai as the name suggests have been constructed in a shape of a massive palm tree although you'd have to be seriously high up to notice that given the size of the place built using land reclamation by the uae government-owned company nakil the palm islands is an archipelago on the coast of dubai consisting of three sets of man-made islands palm jumeirah daira island and palm jebel ali which despite various and numerous problems and delays in their construction have become a major tourist destination palm jumeirah for example is now full of private residences hotels and is the site you'd be most familiar with from the air that incredible palm tree design pump jebel has a similar palm tree motif although due to the financial crisis of 2007 through eight construction on this and the dyra islands have been put on hold to this day the dyra islands are still undeveloped and the project has made significant impact on wildlife and coastal erosion leading to many critical comments from environmentalists number one the world islands yeah it would be hard to come up with a list of amazing man-made islands without mentioning dubai and that's why we're back here again for our number one entry not too far away from the palm islands is another artificial archipelago which is possibly just as well known as the palm islands but has also encountered just as many problems if not more the world islands in dubai may be one of the most familiar and impressive of all man-made islands but the question is for how long because a lot of them are quite literally sinking constructed in the shape of a world map the archipelago consists of seven sets of islands each representing the continents of europe africa asia north america south america antarctica and oceana with each set subdivided into countries ultimately there are 300 islands in total however not only is the work incomplete due to debt issues and legal problems but many of the allies have clearly decided they've had enough of all this stress and chose to sink back into the sea instead this was backed up by photographic evidence taken by the international space station but despite this the project developers still denied that it was happening that might be just the best example of someone in denial that i've ever heard watch our future playlist for more top 15 videos about the future sit back relax and binge watch all of our best future related videos

Channel: Top Fives

Views: 644,868

Keywords: MAN MADE Islands

Id: txbMsg_SR80

Length: 18min 50sec (1130 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 28 2021