Particularly given the region's chaos, it is impressive when seen up close: The cranes operating at all hours; Internet City and Media City, where companies like Microsoft and CNN make their regional homes in what was desert five years ago; the colossal island development, shaped like a palm tree, that is being built out into the gulf.
The grotesqueness epitomizes the accumulation of state power, militarization, ad-saturated democratic process, rights abuses, and colossal development projects such as harbors, airports, highways, luxury shopping arcades which displaced thousands of people.
Second, the kind of development now being installed in the former third world replicates the colossal wastes, inequalities, and inhumanities that attended capitalist development in Europe, the US and Japan.
It is difficult to overestimate the colossal historical significance of such an extraordinary development.
Moreover, the demand for large-scale mosaic making brought about by the colossal urban expansion in the 1st century ce made the development of quicker and simpler techniques imperative.
In a Guardian interview, the shadow international development secretary, Andrew Mitchell, outlined a five-point plan to tackle the "colossal discrepancies of opportunity and wealth" in the world.
"Given the colossal scale of the destruction it would be possible to think together about the development of a comprehensive program for Syria," he said.
It is therefore imperative that the colossal task of documenting the local epidemiology of emergencies now be undertaken to make the development of the specialty locally relevant.
The colossal amount of carbon stored in the Amazon means it could provide billions of dollars of funding for development while keeping the forest intact.
And the colossal muddle goes on.
