$100,000,000,000 paradise islands turned into ghost towns after mega-project went majorly wrong

The country of Azerbaijan had big plans, but the $100 billion Khazar Islands project went horribly wrong.

Back in 2011, construction officially commenced on a very ambitious project that could have been the pinnacle of engineering.

But today, the Khazar Islands sit largely abandoned despite initially being promised to be the project to put Azerbaijan on the map when it comes to engineering power.

Also known as the Caspian Islands, the plan was said to consist of 55 artificial islands interconnected by more than 150 bridges.

Sitting just 25km south of Baku, the paradise islands would have become hugely connected to the rest of Europe.

A satellite image of the islands from earlier this year (Gallo Images/Orbital Horizon/Copernicus Sentinel Data 2024)

The islands would have provided a bunch of homing options for folks, enough to house one million residents in fact, while 150 schools, 50 hospitals, daycare centers, parks, shopping malls, cultural centers and even a university campus were suppose to be built.

The project became even more ambitious though, as it hoped to host a Formula 1 race around the $2 billion Azerbaijan Tower.

The center piece of the islands really showed planners' huge aspirations as they wanted the structure to be the tallest building in the world.

Funnily enough, Formula 1 did make its way to Azerbaijan in 2016, seeing the likes of Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen race across the streets of Baku.

But what happened to the paradise islands?

Well, the idea was first launched by Azerbaijani businessman Ibrahim Ibrahimov in 2010, a concept that was meant to rival Dubai's luxury Palm Islands.

The islands sat just 25km south of Baku (Getty Stock Image)

His idea quickly came to fruition, with the businessman telling reporters at the time of announcement that many had expressed interest in the project.

With hope the 'new Venice' would be completed by 2023, Ibrahimov got to work.

However, the businessman's ambitious project quickly came crashing down on him, despite construction beginning in March 2011.

Azerbaijan's primary source of income is oil and when the price of that crashed in 2015, it created huge problems for the architectural venture.

Many delays followed, with Ibrahimov insisting work would be completed sometime between 2020 and 2025.

Even in April 2017, when progress had stalled on the project for two years, its visionary stated things would be going ahead.

However, that was not the case, and the dream of paradise islands for Azerbaijan was dashed and, to this day, the land remains like a ghost town.