WORLD'S LARGEST
INDOOR RAIN FOREST
G'day folks,
Check out this extraordinary place.
Tropical Islands Resort is an artificial tropical resort
located about 60 kilometers south of Berlin and is housed within the largest
free-standing dome in the world. This massive airplane-hanger-like structure is
360 meters long, 210 meters wide, 107 meters high, and is supported by 14,000
tons of steel. It is large enough to host 8 entire soccer fields. Even the New
York Statue of Liberty (93 meters) could stand upright in it, and the Paris
Eiffel Tower (322 meters) could lie in it.
The Dome offers enough space for the skyline of Berlin's
Potsdamer Platz including the Sony Centre, the gatehouse and the Daimler
Chrysler skyscraper.
At 5.5 million m³, it is one of the largest buildings on
Earth by volume, and is the world's largest single hall without supporting
pillars inside. The structure was commissioned as an airship hangar in November
2000, but the airship it was intended to house – the CL160 – was never built.
The company went bankrupt in mid-2002. Two years later, Tropical Islands Resort
was opened.
Inside the dome is the world’s largest indoor rainforest
with 30,000 trees, bushes and groundcover. There are carnivorous plants, banana
trees, coffee bushes, jungle creepers and other exotic plants. A kilometre-long
path winds through the forest and a bridge over the mangrove swamp gives great
views. The windows on one side of the dome are transparent, allowing real
sunshine to come in and nourish over 500 species of plants.
Guests can lie on the 200 meter-long man-made beach, swim
in the an artificial sea and enjoy warm 26 degrees Celsius weather all year
round. The tropical sea is lined with sandy beaches and dotted with small
tropical islands decorated with grass huts. Against the grey hangar wall is a
backdrop of a blue sky with a few clouds.
Surrounding the pools are re-creations of famous
architectural wonders from Asia like Angkor Wat, the Balinese Temple Gate, a
longhouse from Borneo, and a traditional Thai house. Ponds and canals wind
their way around various activity sites, and large Buddha statues are
everywhere.
The complex is open year round, 24 hours a day, with a
multitude of attractions to keep you busy. There is a swimming pool, large
enough to accommodate up to 8,000 visitors a day, a 25 meter water slide,
mini-golf course, restaurants serving gourmet meals, shopping pavilion, bars,
daycares, and even overnight camping on Paradise beach.
Tropical paradise even has some environmentally-conscious
features, such as recycled water from the swimming pools is used to waters the
plant life found inside, which itself grows from custom-made soil made of sand,
organic waste, clay, and tree bark. Natural UV light is also able to permeate
through the dome and give plants access to sunlight and warmth.
And
because of the humidity found within, water condensation periodically gathers
inside the dome, which then falls back down producing spontaneous rain showers,
further adding to the resorts tropical climate.
The
resort is located in the municipality of Krausnick, in Brandenburg, Germany,
about 60 km south-southeast of Berlin and an hour’s drive away.
Okay, now let’s have a look.
Clancy's comment: Wow! Maybe a thing of the future, eh?
I'm ...
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