Atlantis, The Palm : A New Luxury Hotel in Dubai

For a glimpse of just what $1.5 billion of hotel looks like, first cross the 300m-long bridge that links mainland Dubai to the extraordinary exercise in land reclamation that is the Palm Jumeirah.

The resort consists of two towers linked by a bridge, with a total of approximately two thousand rooms. There are two monorail stations connecting the resort to the main section of the Palm Jumeirah islands.

The resort contains a giant open-air tank with 65,000 fish, stingrays and other sea creatures and a dolphinarium with more than two dozen bottlenose dolphins flown in, amid controversy, from the Solomon Islands.

It is a hotel with 1729 rooms and 17 restaurants, but the hotel's top floor aims squarely at the ultra-wealthy. A three-bedroom, three-bathroom suite complete with gold-leaf 18-seat dining table is on offer for USD25,000 a night. The cheapest room is at the average rate of USD 650.The hotel was just opened on 24th of September 2008 and be the first to open on The Palm, a man-made island off the coast of the UAE that is shaped like a palm tree. It was touted as one of the emirate's most extravagant hotels to date.