Yas Island

Yas Island (Arabic جزيرة ياس Jazīrat Yās, DMG Ǧazīrat Yās) is one of the larger natural islands in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, after the main island. It is 7.7 km long from north to south and a maximum of 6.2 km wide, and has an area of 25 km².

Yas is located in the mangrove belt east of the main island, south on the mainland is the tourist-developed coastal area of Al Raha, and around 7 km southeast is Abu Dhabi Airport. The flat sandy island is being developed with a 40 billion dollar development project by Aldar Properties and thus fundamentally changed.

For this purpose, the coastlines were straightened, filled in as new areas, enclosed by a navigable canal of 90 to 140 m width and thus also made accessible from the sea. Bridges and roads were built on the island area and accompanying forest belts were created against erosion. The area of the original island was thus enlarged by about one third to approximately 25 square kilometres. In order to preserve a natural character, areas were also set aside for the reintroduction of the submerged mangrove growth.

The project includes broad-based residential complexes with villas, individual houses and apartment buildings, around 20 hotels, a leisure complex with three theme parks, and sports and port facilities. In addition, there is a motor sports circuit (Yas Marina Circuit), which opened in November 2009 with the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix of the Formula 1 series with a day-night race.

Thematically, Yas Island will be dedicated primarily to motorsport and its hobby and leisure variants: A sponsored theme park, "Ferrari World," has been built north of the F1 racetrack, its octopus-like foil roof spanning some 200,000 square feet. Another Hollywood theme park (Warner Broth.) is planned, and the water park (Yas Waterworld) has already been completed. In addition, there will be numerous providers of motorized amusements such as dune biking, go-karting and off-road driving. Other recreational facilities will include a golf course with six hotels, plus several developed beach areas. A 400,000-square-metre shopping centre with futuristic architecture will cater for both permanent residents and the many day visitors planned for the area. In July 2009, around 41,000 workers were working in shifts on the numerous construction projects on Yas Island. For the construction workers, a separate container housing camp with the dimensions of a small town was built.

The Shahama-Saadiyat Freeway runs across Yas Island and since October 2009 has connected central Abu Dhabi via Saadiyat Island with the extended Sheikh Zayed Road in Dubai.