What Others think of PUTRAJAYA

timesbusiness : December 12, 2008 | The 10 most outrageous vanity projects

Many real-world egos have poured vast wealth into doomed projects. Here Times Money lists 10 of the most pectacular:

8. Babylon (reconstruction), Iraq

The extensive ruins of Babylon, one of the great cities of the ancient world, were not spectacular enough for the tastes of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, who commissioned a gaudy "reconstruction" of the site in 1985. This was built over priceless archaeology, using slapdash architectural guesswork and inferior workmanship. Features included bricks stamped with "Built by Saddam Hussein, son of Nebuchadnezzar, to glorify Iraq", and a mural of the Ba'athist despot alongside his supposed predecessor

9. Putrajaya, Malaysia

The then prime minister Mahathir Mohamad founded a new administrative capital for Malaysia in 1995. The Putrajaya megaproject, widely branded a white elephant, is estimated to have cost upwards of $5 billion, with $50 million-plus going on the premier's domed mansion. Upkeep of the latter 16-hectare complex costs a further $2.5 million a year. Critics have slammed the city's Islamic architecture, which, they say, does not acknowledge the country's Indian and Chinese minorities.

10. Hamilton Palace, near Brighton, England

Britain's most notorious landlord Nicholas van Hoogstraten - a man convicted in 1968 of ordering a hand-grenade attack on a rabbi's home - lavished an estimated £32 million on his new-built neo-classical residence near Uckfield, East Sussex, before putting work on hold in 2001 following spats with builders. The centrepiece of the project is its owner's mausoleum, with walls three feet thick to preserve his bones for 5,000 years. He once said: "The whole purpose of having money is to put yourself on a pedestal"

extract from timesonline.