How many of us could find Dubai on the map in 5 minutes??

What a difference in 17 years! Just shows what a little oil money can do.

Dubai in 1990

The same street in 2003

Last year

Dubai is said to currently have 15-25% of all the world's cranes.

The Dubai Waterfront. When completed it will become the largest waterfront development in the world.

All of this was built in the last 5 years, including the island that looks like a palm tree.

The Palm Islands in Dubai. New Dutch dredging technology was used to create these massive man-made islands. They are the largest artificial islands in the world and can be seen from space.

Three of these Palms will be made with the last one being the largest of them all. Upon completion, the resort will have 2,000 villas, 40 luxury hotels, shopping centers, movie theaters, and many other facilities. It is expected to support a population of approximately 500,000 people and is advertised as being visible from the moon.

The World Islands . 300 artificially created islands in the shape of the world. Each island will be built at an estimated cost of $25-30 million.

The Burj al-Arab hotel in Dubai . The world's tallest hotel. Considered the most luxurious hotel in the world. It stands on an artificial island in the sea.

Hydropolis, the world's first under water hotel. Entirely built in Germany and then assembled in Dubai , it is scheduled to be completed by 2009 after many delays.

The Burj Dubai. Construction began in 2005 and is expected to be completed by 2008. At an estimated height of over 800 meters, it will easily be the world's tallest building when finished. It will be almost 40% taller than the current tallest building, the Taipei 101.

This is what downtown Dubai will look like around 2008-2009. More than 140 stories of the Burj Dubai have already been completed. It is already the worlds tallest man made structure and it won't be anywhere near completion for at least another year.

The Al Burj. This will be the centerpiece of the Dubai Waterfront. Once completed it will take over the title of the tallest structure in the world from the Burj Dubai.

Recently it was announced that the final height of this tower will be 1200 meters. That would make it more than 30% taller than the Burj Dubai and three times as tall as the Empire State Building .

The Burj al Alam, or The World Tower . Upon completion it will rank as the world's highest hotel. It is expected to be finished by 2009. At 480 meters it will only be 28 meters shorter than the Taipei 101.

The Trump International Hotel & Tower, which will be the centerpiece of one of the palm islands, The Palm Jumeirah.

Dubailand. Currently, the largest amusement park in the world is Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando , which is also the largest single-site employer in the United states with 58,000 employees. Dubailand will be twice the size.

Dubailand will be built on 3 billion square feet (107 sq.miles) at an estimated $20 billion price tag. The site will include a purported 45 mega projects and 200 other smaller projects.

Currently, the Walt Disney World Resort is the #1 tourist destination in the world. Once fully completed, Dubailand will easily take over that title since it is expected to attract 200,000 visitors daily.

DubaiSports City . A huge conglamerate of sports arenas located in Dubailand.

The Dubai Marina is an entirely man made development that will contain over 200 high-rise buildings when finished. It will be home to some of the tallest residential structures in the world.

The completed first phase of the project is shown here. Most of the other high rise buildings will be finished by 2009-2010.

The Dubai Mall will be the largest shopping mall in the world with over 9 million square feet of shopping and around 1000 stores. It will be completed by the end of 2008.

Ski Dubai , which is already open, is the largest indoor skiing facility in the world. This is a rendered image of another future indoor skiing facility that is being planned.

Some of the tallest buildings in the world, such as Ocean Heights and The Princess Tower , which will be the largest residential buildings in the world at over a 100 stories, will line the Dubai Marina .

I'm not joking...

Some other crazy things-

* The Dubai Metro system, once completed, will become the largest fully automated rail system in the world.

* The Dubai World Central International Airport will become the largest airport in size when it is completed. It will also eventually become the busiest airport in the world, based on passenger volume.

* Worth mentioning that there are more construction workers in Dubai than the actual number of citizens.

* The UAE Spaceport would be the first spaceport in the world if construction ever gets under way.