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How big is Palm Jebel Ali?

8 kilometers!

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Palm Jebel Ali

Palm Jebel Ali is an artificial island off the coast of Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, built from sand in the shape of a palm tree. Its 16 fronds sit inside a crescent-shaped breakwater, a wall of rock that protects the island from erosion. The size shown above, 8 kilometers (5 miles), is its width across that crescent. No published survey of the width was found to confirm it, so the figure is approximate.

Size

A 2025 scientific study describes the island as about 12 square kilometers of land reclaimed from the sea. Its developer, Nakheel, describes it as seven islands with 16 fronds, 120 kilometers (75 miles) of coastline and more than 90 kilometers (56 miles) of beaches. The US Geological Survey describes it as similar in shape to Palm Jumeirah, another palm-shaped island off Dubai, and slightly larger.

The breakwater is built from boulders, mostly limestone, weighing 4–7 metric tons each. It surrounds the island on the side facing the open sea, with only a few openings into the lagoon inside.

Size comparisons

  • Its more than 90 kilometers of beaches would stretch more than twice the length of a marathon, which is 42.195 kilometers (26.2 miles).
  • By area, its roughly 12 square kilometers of land is about three and a half times the size of Central Park in New York City, which covers 843 acres (3.4 square kilometers).
  • The island needs about 200–220 million cubic meters of sand and other fill in all. That is enough to fill 80,000–88,000 Olympic swimming pools.

How it was built

Ships dredged sand and silt from the seabed and sprayed it into the planned shape, guided by satellite positioning. Workers then used a machine called a vibroflot to mix in stone and make the new land solid. The outer crescent was built between January 2003 and January 2006. By 2009, the work of filling in the land inside it had stopped.

A long pause

Work slowed after the financial crisis of 2008, and construction on the island was suspended in 2009. In 2022, NASA described it as still mostly undeveloped. In 2024, Nakheel hired the dredging company Jan De Nul to reclaim more land, shape the beaches and prepare the ground for houses.

As of 2026, villas are being built on the fronds, and Nakheel expects to hand over the first homes by the end of the year. Its plans for the island include more than 80 hotels and resorts.

Sources

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