Al Futaisi

Al Futaisi (Arabic: الفطيسي‎) is an island about 8-kilometre (5.0 mi) southwest of Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates with a size of approximately 50-square-kilometre (12,000-acre).

The largest part of the island, which is 10-kilometre (6.2 mi) long and 5-kilometre (3.1 mi) wide, is covered by a wildlife sanctuary but also a resort for ecotourism was built on Futaisi.

The discovery of old water catchments showed that the original settlement of Futaisi dates back several hundred years.[1] Although the island does currently not have any fresh water, it supports a diverse flora and fauna with Dugong, Osprey, lizards (Uromastyx) and Gazelles.[2]

Futaisi is not connected to the mainland by bridges but has a small airport and a boat dock.

A special sign of the owner of the island, Hamad bin Hamdan Al Nahyan, was the construction of a waterway formed by Latin letters in the south of the island "at 24°20′48.32″N 54°19′57.42″E", which produced the word 'HAMAD'. The individual letters were almost 500-metre (1,600 ft) long, the channel width was 44-metre (144 ft) and the total width of the word extended over 1,700-metre (5,600 ft) which allowed the word to be read from air or satellite images like Google Maps. The project was abandoned and the waterway filled in by 2012.[3]

References
  1. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2012-06-16. Retrieved 2011-09-24.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  2. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2016-04-04. Retrieved 2011-09-24.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  3. Fitch, Asa (10 April 2013). "Abu Dhabi Sheikh Has Name Erased From Private Island". MIDDLEEASTREALTIME. The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 16 June 2019.

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