Secrets of the Arabian Canal

In the land of twisted, stretched and rotating towers, matchbox communities, outrageous masterplans and artificial islands of all shapes and sizes, a project of epic proportions is taking shape without the usual fanfare. The largest man-made canal might not sound exciting to you, but when completed The Arabian Canal will shape the new Dubai.

Apart from some vague mentions in some websites and some company press releases, Nakheel has centred the spotlight on the Dubai Waterfront which itself will be the biggest waterfont development in the world extending the Dubai coastline by 820 km, 12 times the current length and housing 750,000 people (if they can find them). But Dubai Waterfront,which will be completed in 2010, is only the tip of the iceberg compared to the Arabian Canal.

So what is this enigmatic Arabian Canal that no one talks about?

When you look at the major masterplan developments in Dubai on this map, you can see that the Arabian Canal(marked in light blue) is massive in terms of scale - 80 km to be precise. But what makes it interesting is not this image but glimpses of another plan as inadvertently shown in the Dubai Waterfront Video. It has been said that the shape of Dubai as it will be in 2025 is already planned and well in place - but just look at the extent where the Canal extends to the whole mainland.

It will be hardly surprising if this plan does go through because there has been a mad scramble to increase the Dubai beachfront from a mere 45 km to an unbelievable 1500 km through the construction of artificial islands. Now options are getting limited because of lack of space and going inland with the canal extension might be the only way out to create more waterfront. Which is lucrative to the real-estate industry by the way if it will be able to sustain this momentum, considering that waterfront properties are priced a lot higher than inland properties and has several other advantages as well.

It is also important to keep the water running, in which case inland lakes are definitely out of the picture and the canal seems to be a viable solution. The other possibilities the canal offers are limitless - waterfront communities and other developments especially with the grid like extension as shown in the video. The Arabian Canal might not attain the legendary stature of the Suez Canal and the Panama Canal but is definitely destined to change the shape of Dubai when it is completed in 2013.