Wow!

The Burj Al Arab stands on an artificial island 280 metres (919 ft) out from Jumeirah beach, and is connected to the mainland by a private curving bridge. It is an iconic structure, designed to symbolize Dubai's urban transformation and to mimic the sail of a Dhow. To secure a foundation, the builders drove 230 40-meter long concrete piles into the sand. The foundation is held in place not by bedrock, but by the friction of the sand and silt along the length of the piles. The building contains over 70,000 cubic meters of concrete and 9,000 tons of steel.

For more about Burj Al Arab got0 http://www.alshindagah.com/july2000/engineering.htm