London is set to become home to over 100,000 newcomers in the shape of 250 exotic butterflies from around the world. Unfortunately, the butterflies won’t be spreading (summer)joy and happiness in Kilburn and Neasden, since they will only be flying around in the city’s next big attraction - Butterfly World!
Butterfly World will be the world’s largest display of butterflies. It will be built on a butterfly-shaped site near St Albans in Hertfordshire with a spectacular 100m translucent dome forming its centrepiece 'eye'.
"The dome will be big enough to contain seven Stonehenge sites and it will have in it the replica remains of a lost Mayan city and a tropical rainforest,” says Clive Farrell, the property developer and butterfly enthusiast behind the project, according to The Daily Telegraph.
The recreated rainforest will have ponds, waterfalls, and rope walk-ways overlooking the rainforest canopy while below ground level sections of the dome will be submerged to incorporate caverns, writes The Daily Telegraph. These caverns definitely won’t be for the faint-hearted as they will house creatures such as giant spiders and scorpions!
The giant dome will be surrounded outside by wildflower meadows and gardens designed to attract native and fast-declining British butterflies. The gardens will be open to the public in June 2009, while the whole butterfly-project is due for completion in 2011.
David Rich Momondo