The Palm Islands are two artificial islands in Dubai, United Arab Emirates in the shape of palm trees. The Belgian and Dutch dredging and marine contractors Jan De Nul and Van Oord, were hired to complete construction. The islands are the Palm Jumeirah and the Palm Jebel Ali. Each settlement will be in the shape of a palm tree, topped with a crescent. The settlements will have a large number of residential, leisure and entertainment centres and will add 520 kilometres of non-public beaches to the city of Dubai.
The two islands will comprise approximately 100,000 cubic metres (3,500,000 cu ft) of rock and sand. All materials will be quarried in The UAE. On the two islands, there will be over 100 luxury hotels, residential beach-side villas and apartments, marinas, water theme parks, restaurants, shopping malls, sports facilities and health spas. The creation of the Palm Jumeirah began in June 2001. Shortly after, the Palm Jebel Ali was announced and reclamation work began. A third island was planned and construction started, but this project was later remodelled and renamed to Deira Island.