West Edmonton Mall

West Edmonton Mall at 8770-170 St. on the western edge of the city is the third largest covered shopping and leisure center in the world, and was completed in1986. The Perso-Armenian family clan of Germesian amassed 1.1 billion Canadian dollars to pay for the project and also intends to build similar centers elsewhere in the world.

Within a year from opening West Edmonton Mall became a top tourist attraction, and now has some six million visitors every year

West Edmonton Mall with its many and varied attractions has already appeared three times in the Guiness Book of Records. Over an area the size of more than 100 football pitches there are more than 830 shops and branches of large departmental stores, over 110 restaurants, about twenty cinemas and the twelve-storied "Fantasyland Hotel". In Europa Boulevard many of the shops have European-style fronts and carry the names of international fashion designers, and in Bourbon Street, a copy of the famous street in New York, the tourist will find restaurants serving Creole food and bars serving up jazz. Among other major attractions are the very popular "Ice Palace" which hosts top quality ice-hockey matches, and the highly impressive "World Water Park" boasting an exciting range of water chutes as well as several temperate aquaria with sharks, tropical fish and penguins. There are also animal enclosures. Canada Fantasyland, a large covered amusement park, offers 25 different sorts of rides. The main attraction is a roller coaster with three "loop the loops", the "Deep Sea Adventure", a real lake with four submarines, a full-scale replica of Christopher Columbus' ship, the "Santa Maria" (marriage services are conducted in the captain's cabin), and a dolphinarium.

The World Water Park covers 2 ha (5 acres) and is the world's largest indoor swimming-pool. Covered by a glass dome this giant leisure pool with artificially-induced waves has no less than 22 water-chutes!