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Subscribe to RSSYou need about 2 miles of sand to carve your name big enough and a crew of hired hands to dig. But a billionaire sheikh from Abu Dhabi, Hamad bin Hamdan al Nahyan, has done just that.
See the image on Google maps.
Read more on Space.com
Google maps / DigitalGlobe / GeoEye
As seen from a satellite in this image taken from Google maps, the name Hamad is clearly seen from space.
Google maps / DigitalGlobe / GeoEye
Another view via Google.
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Vanity, thy name is Hamad.
Fool's names and fool's faces are often seen in public places.
You said the truth !! YOU KNOW.
Interesting it isn't written in Arabic characters...
Is it meant to be viewed from passing aircraft, or has the sheik employed some cheap planners/"sign writers"? Just seems weird that it's written perfectly horizontally, but upside down on pretty much any map.
There are too much crazy people in the world .
Like amadeo said, why isn't it written in Arabic?
what is the use of Arabic any way !!
a billionaire, huh?? and He has nothing better to do with his money? does He own this piece of land,?? that He can just write his name on it?? for what?? Whats the purpose of writing your name so big, to be remembered, if you have not accomplished something wonderful for the world, like donating where it's needed, feeding the poor, contributing for the cancer society or any other illness,that is desperatly searching for a cure..He may be a billionaire here, but once your gone, your gone alone..your money stays, and your name is just a number unless you've made a difference in others, your name will be remembered, and it wouldn't be necessary to have your name written so big, that you need to be in space to read it..
All Muslims, and God knows especially the rich, donate upwards of 10% of their salaries to charities each year.
Actually, King Abdullah (of Saudi Arabia) has given 36billion USDs to new benefit programs to all Saudis.
Muslims donate their money, especially the rich ones.
But hey, many Arabs seem to enjoy their money as if they were the kings of Las Vegas.
claudia-3788052....Do you really think "they" are searching for a cure for cancer....or any other disease??? They have always had cures for Cancer but you will never know about it cause the greedy pharmaceutical companies can't make money off people that are disease free....I would advise the rich man to invest his money into educating the world about the lies being told bout cancer.
However temporary and meaningless, he did give a few people some honest work.
Rogie was one of the diggers. He obviously spent waaaay too much time in the sun. Next time wear a hat Rogie.
The reason its written in English is because he wanted it to be internationally know and due to the fact that English is an international language hence there you have....the reason why he did it is because the guy has more money than anyone could ever dream of so he woke up one day and decided to white his name in the sand just like anyone has done during there trip on the beach but the guy wanted it to say for a while LOL so he built the dam thing(constructors).what could be a debate is the typography is pretty darn awesome, i mean for something that huge construction wise and precision totally amazing. then for why its written upside down is because the tide moves downwards so if it were to be written the other way around the water wouldn't do its thing and enter in...even though he dug to water level.
So to read your clear explanation you sound like you are giving him props, and put him on a pedestal to do something that stupid....I am glad I don't have you as a friend, buddy or member of my family... because its show the stupidity that you can show off...and YOURSELF SAYING THAT 'S PRETTY AWESOME SHOWS ME THAT LITTLE THING THAT PEOPLE DO MAKES YOU GO WOAW......dum ass...
the money could have been used for more meaningful things as research, schools, feed etc... but i am sure you don't see no meaning in these actions...
Are you self-centered !!! no need to answer...
antyyyy
I was going to write your name with a capital "a" but I don't see the reason, anyhow I just noticed something on that name, the last two letters are "d" and "a" which stand for "dum ass". Also your explanation about the tide and why it was written up side down does not make any sense, oh boy you got me started, and i hope you can comprehend that, ahaha, if you or I fly from the North going to the South I will be able to read it but coming from the south going to the north it won't do any good to see it but to see the first two letters D and A again.. OMG I hope you are not a teacher or something or a scientist... from their country...oh my goodness...
If you have money you can do whatever the hell you want. Stop saying that money could have gone towards other beneficial stuff. maybe that guy actually donates a lot of too.. many rich peopl like Bill Gates and Hugh Henfer have their own islands and whore houses etc..whats the point of having a big statue in the middle of the city that costs billions of dollars?? this is a land mark too.. its their money.. its their business to enjoy it the way they like. we only live once. Stop being jelous.
He had to give employment to people to construct it. That size was quite an undertaking so he provided jobs for somebody for quite awhile until it was built.
Besides, you don't know where else he uses his money. Contrary to how people feel about Arabians, the rich are not greedy misers like in the U.S. In the middle-east, there's not much to do, so they spend a lot money on the community.
Good thing it wasn't snow. It would have been written in yellow.
1. We need Hamad bin Hamdan al Nahyan to also help finance education in rural Africa. Poor African Children are on the streets; needing to go to school. 2. We need Him to help promote environmental studies in rural Africa, mostly on Climate Chane. Hope this petition would be considered. Allah Blessings!!
To be honest, a lot of people say that because they are the ones with no money like him, but if you had the money I doubt you would even be doing what you're saying, he must have thousands of workers, which he pays, which needed jobs enough to go and look for the job.
Doing jobs is about creating a product or service or capital to be used by society. This is of no use. It's just like our government paying people to dig ditches then fill the ditches back in. That creates nothing. It's a waste of money, labor, and capital.
Maybe, but it was his own money and not Tax Dollars. He doesn't care what you do with your money, so why should you care what he does with his.
Typical billionaire from a muslim country making useless projects.
There are over 1100 billionaires in the world and maybe 7% are from a "Muslim country." Are you implying that it's typical for all those Muslim billionaires out there to make "useless projects" with their money? How many do you know are doing that? For that matter, do you have any idea what else he's spending it on? Robert Karp wasn't wrong when he said they often give back to their community. What's more interesting is that over half of the aforementioned billionaires are Americans and you better believe there's a LOT more wasted money spent by them than from a guy who felt like writing his name in huge letters. Narcissistic? Sure, but it's still his money and he's not hurting anyone with it by digging up some sand.
Yeah I'm clearly implying it. Most, if not ALL of their billionaires come from their natural resources, oil. So I don't have any sympathy for self proclaim emirs or whatever because they didn't actually build anything. Bill Gates for example used his brain, and today he doesn't write his name somewhere to show his ego.
And the worst of it is that they are making dumb projects like this one, or building ridiculous islands, the biggest skycrapers they had to rename because the money they corrupted didn't finally match their thirst of stupidity.
But I see the good side of it, they are giving work to the best architects of the world and engineers, which are westerners.
You would think a billionaire could afford to have his name printed right side up , LOL!!
That just happens to be the angle from which the picture was taken. One could say the photographer should have had his camera turned right side up.
I apologize, all of us here know that FenderBender823 is not that smart.
LOL!!
May be he's trying to pave his way to Heaven ahahahaha
Dear trendsdistribution,
I sure hope you're not a teacher or scientist either. "Dum ass" seems to be the only response you have to antyyyy. However, dum is spelled with a "b" after the "m" ...Dumb. Oh and by the way, what the heck does this mean "...because it's show the stupidity that you can show off. I'm sure that makes sense to you and you alone. I won't even get into your lack of punctuation. Hav e a nice day now.
Hamad bin Hamdan is stupid Haiwan.
Thats hes problem he has the money he can doed. But if you want som body to remenber you buy me a house i will remember you all my life .
I feel shame there are such so called Muslims in this World. If he have that Much Money He should have built a Big Hospital, A Big University or Old Homes for Poor by his Name HAMAD. I bet he should have much more Popular and must have been recognized by whole world with good fame. e.g Shaikh Zaid Opened a Hospital in Pakistan and since then every Person Pray for him when every they get well from there.
How do you know he hasn't?
We keep buying their oil, they keep blowing money on stupid $&@!
I'm sure the thousands of his starving brethren in Somalia are thrilled HAMAD chose to spend his money scarring the earth with his look-at-me graffiti.
He is quite an example for the Muslim world. No scientists, humanitarians or peacemakers left alive to speak of, plenty of hard-boiled martyrdom seeking Islamists though – and more being recruited all the time – but maybe he should get a feel-good Nobel Peace Prize for writing his name in the sand, such a benign and peaceful endeavor, though Muslim clerics might not be too pleased. They would have probably preferred he'd written it in Arabic and they may yet demand he fill in the kuffar's English, especially since it is carved into Muslim land. And shouldn't he have written ALLAH or MOHAMMAD (PBUH) instead. Bringing attention to himself in such a way could be considered a form of self-idolatry and idolatry is considered a grievous sin by devout Mohammadans.
What are mohammadans?? Hehehehehe... There is no such thing as mohammadans.. How stupid are you? Obviously as stupid as the article you read that was talking about mohammadans, which made you think you had enough information to act intelligently. Oh so funny indeed. lol
People like you are all the same. If you can stereotype so can I. Want some advise read a bit more before opening your uneducated mouth. You really sound like a goon to anyone with intelligence...
@Amaatullah=)
Talk about sounding like a goon ....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohammedan
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/mohammedan
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/mohammedan
abdufreedom : Thanks for this great comment!
I totally agree with the comment of Mr. Haroon as above. The money they have is not there entity. The Supreme power is God. the God distributed the money among these rich person to take care the poor people. At the day of judgement they will be asked by God. So i can pray for the Muslims that the God show them the right path........
It's his money. He doesn't care what you do with yours, so why should you care what he does with his. If you had that much money, you'd be spending it on what others would consider stupid too. You don't think so, look at all the huge lavish mansions our rich and famous purchase, and they often times have several. As far as I'm concerned that Sheik did a lot more good by employing people for several years on his dime to build his name in the sand than some rich cat here in the states purchasing several mansions and buy several expensive cars.
If wanted his name to be noticed and as doing some thing good with his name he could of went to Gaza and poured his money in into hospitals and badly need construction as well as food for the palestinians who are under siege.
How do you know he hasn't?
this is stupid , stupid sheikh , instead you should use your money to feed and help poor people in africa and all over the world ,do you think you are going to take this money and fame with you into the grave , what would you say to god on judgment day when he ask you what did you do with the money he gave you ? you `re so stupid that`s why you have a zero on your head that means HAMAD = 0
This Guy has entirely way too much time on his hands!!!
the man is a philanthopist u condeming idiots i think he desevers to write is name somewhere, maybe even on some of ur asses lol
lol
all those saying that the man name will not be remebered if that's y he wrote his name in the sand , what i want to now is how the hell can u write u name sooo big and it won't be remembered. And his name is not written upside down, the smart photogragher has the wrong angle. lol the man probably have his reasons for writing his name there maybe his doing something for himself after doing so much for others or something else. In addition he created empolyment for soo many who needed it . Bottomline if doesn't effect anyone adversely except the haters, the man can do what he wants with his MONEY hahaha
i don't c anyone speaking up about the millions USA spend sending rock collecting machines to space ans funding mad scientis projects like the one attempting to give humans 'super powers'.
Mad Scientists. Haha.
Yeah. Worthless scientists. But then, if it weren't for them all of this pointless blather wouldn't be read by so many now would it? You would be left to write on your walls and talk to yourself about how clever you are.