Atlantis the Palm, Dubai's new super luxury resort, was officially opened last week at a $20 million most expensive private party ever thrown in the city. The 1,539-room five-star hotel, atop a palm tree-shaped island, built at an estimated cost of $1.5 billion, has a gigantic aquarium with 65,000 fish and a rare whale-shark, as well as a dolphinarium with more than two dozen dolphins. The resort is one of the most luxurious and expensive in the world. Some suites have furniture made of solid gold !
The opening ceremony, attended by 2,000 guests including film stars, politicians, royals and star athletes, was a clear show of extravagance. The invitees included Denzel Washington, Robert DeNiro, Charlize Theron, Priyanka Chopra, and Nawal Zoghbi -- just to name a few.
The biggest attraction of the 'the birth of the icon' was a huge display of fireworks, seven times bigger than this year's Olympic Games opening ceremony in Beijing and "visible from space," according to organizers !