This image provided by nasa shows man-made archipelagos near dubai, united arab emirates in this image photographed by an expedition 22 crew member on the international space station jan. 13, 2010. palm island, jumeirah (lower left), was begun in 2001 and required more than 50 million cubic meters of dredged sand to raise the islands above the persian gulf sea level. creation of the 300 world islands (upper right) was begun in 2003 and completed in 2008, using 320 million cubic meters of sand and 37 million tons of rock for the surrounding 27 kilometer-long protective breakwater. [CFP]