valencia
In the City of Arts and Sciences, one can travel in space, drop in on times long past and explore the depths of the sea
09.07.09 - 17:58 -
The Hemisphere and Príncipe Felipe Science Museum. / SUR
The City of Arts and Sciences makes for a wonderful destination for all the family and a unique experience for those interested in the world we inhabit, the oceans around us, our distant past, our future and the universe we form such an insignificant part of.
The Príncipe Felipe Science Museum offers exhibitions in which the general public can take part, experiencing simulated flights to the International Space Station, guided by the voice and image of Spanish astronaut Pedro Duque; a robot programme, cooking with liquid nitrogen and seeing exactly how our own bodies function.
The children will be both educated by and amazed at the Marvel Superheroes exhibition, in which they have the chance to discover the scientific principles associated with the supernatural powers of fictitious comic characters such as Spiderman, the Incredible Hulk, Daredevil and the X Patrol.
Sea creatures in battle
In the Hemisphere, which has been designed and built in the shape of a human eye, one can see the best documentary films in IMAX and digital format. One can enjoy the battles between weird sea creatures of the depths of the oceans, many of which we tend to associate with pure fiction but which are, in fact, real. We can go back in time to ancient Egypt and see the tombs of the Pharaohs, experiencing the way they lived and died. And in the Oceanarium, visitors can enter into an underwater world to see the principal marine ecosystems of the deep.
Above the surface, the visitor can enjoy watching the different sea animals such as sea lions, dolphins and seals from many different parts of the world, while inside, one can see the many aquatic species in conditions as close to their own habitats as possible. For many, the most fascinating is the beluga whale, those immense white sea creatures of the cold Arctic who emit an incredible range of sounds, from grunts and groans to shouts and whistles. Visitors watch in amazement as these huge animals move their heads from side to side, gesticulate and appear to smile at us.
The zoo is of particular interest to almost everybody. It is not a normal zoo, but one that has no cages, no bars, no mesh fences. The Biopark was opened just a year ago and is already considered one of the best three zoos in the world, mainly because the animals live in their own habitats. It covers an area of 100,000 square metres and is located in the old mouth of the Turia river. Here, zoologists have re-created different areas of Africa and the island of Madagascar. Animals of many different species inhabit the zoo, just as in the wild.
Natural barriers
The visitor to the zoo has the impression of being in quite a different place, where gorillas play with mangabeys, where zebras share living space with rhinoceroses and where giraffes, lions and their prey, the antelope, live in close quarters.
Traditional zoo barriers have been replaced by natural and invisible barriers such as rivers, fallen tree trunks and giant glass walls. Few visitors will forget their first sight of a herd of elephants strolling by baboons and other monkeys jumping from tree to tree.
Here too one can relax in a terrace restaurant while eating a meal that can cost as little as six euros, while the wild animals pass by just a few metres away.
