Ronaldskk. Posted June 28, 2021 Posted June 28, 2021 From a vantage point more than 50 stories high, Ali Mansour looks down on the islands he helped build nearly two decades ago. "It was a great challenge," he says. "A (once-in-a) lifetime experience." Those islands make up Dubai's iconic Palm Jumeirah -- a man-made, palm tree-shaped archipelago home to luxury hotels, pristine beaches, and nearly 80,000 people. "It was a first," recounts Mansour, "an unprecedented project of that scale." A civil engineer by trade, Mansour moved from Canada to Dubai in 1998 to work with a consultancy firm. He watched from a distance as the Palm project began in June 2001. "I became very curious when the first satellite pictures were published in 2002, showing a tiny piece of land emerging above the ocean surface," he says. "Then I decided I'm going to do whatever to join the company behind the work on this project." A spectacular feat of engineering, the man-made islands of Palm Jumeirah are 20 years old this year.
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