Perlan
Glass-domed hot-water tank complex on Öskjuhlíð hill, now a nature museum with a viewing deck.
Perlan stands on the wooded hill of Öskjuhlíð above Reykjavík, where six tanks have stored the city's geothermal hot water since the 1930s. In 1991 the municipal energy utility crowned the tanks with a glass dome and a revolving restaurant to a design by Ingimundur Sveinsson, creating one of the most recognisable silhouettes on the Reykjavík skyline. The name means 'the pearl'. A mirrored cladding, an open atrium and a hemispherical roof of glass panels set on a steel frame give the building its distinctive form.
Since 2017 the interior has housed Wonders of Iceland, a museum of Icelandic nature run in partnership with the Icelandic Institute of Natural History. Displays cover glaciers, volcanism, geothermal energy, water and seabirds, and include a tunnel cut through several hundred tonnes of snow to imitate a glacial ice cave. A planetarium shows the aurora film Áróra under an 8K dome, and an outdoor observation deck runs right around the building at the level of the tank roofs.
Highlights
- Glass dome set on six working geothermal hot-water tanks
- 360-degree observation deck over Reykjavík and Faxaflói bay
- Man-made ice cave built from compacted snow
- Áróra northern lights film in the 8K planetarium
![Afrique occidentale française : Cathédrale à St Louis / [photogr. Eugène] Gallois ; [photogr. reprod. par Radiguet et Massiot pour la conférence donnée par] Gallois](https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0a/Afrique_occidentale_fran%C3%A7aise_-_Cath%C3%A9drale_%C3%A0_St_Louis_-_%28photogr._Eug%C3%A8ne%29_Gallois_%3B_%28photogr._reprod._par_Radiguet_et_Massiot_pour_la_conf%C3%A9rence_donn%C3%A9e_par%29_Gallois_-_btv1b532798828.jpg/500px-thumbnail.jpg)
![[Golestan, Le Salon et Fete de l'equinode, Teheran, Iran (le Pavillion du Trone)]](https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/33/-Golestan%2C_Le_Salon_et_Fete_de_l%27equinode%2C_Teheran%2C_Iran_%28le_Pavillion_du_Trone%29-_MET_DP202918.jpg/500px--Golestan%2C_Le_Salon_et_Fete_de_l%27equinode%2C_Teheran%2C_Iran_%28le_Pavillion_du_Trone%29-_MET_DP202918.jpg)
![Théâtre de la guerre dans l'Inde sur la coste de Coromandel / par M.B.C.T. [Monsieur Bourcet Capitaine ?] ; gravé par Croisey](https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/99/Fort_de_Calicuta_-_btv1b59706294.jpg/500px-Fort_de_Calicuta_-_btv1b59706294.jpg)
