West Edmonton Mall

The West Edmonton Mall (abbreviated WEM) is located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

For 23 years, from 1981 to 2004, it was the largest mall in the world. Today, with 350,000 m² of retail space, the largest shopping mall in North America and number six in the world; the entire area of the complex is, however 492.000m ². Thus, the Mall is the largest of its kind, not related to the sales, but their total area.

The mall was built in four phases from 1981 to 1998. After completion of the final stage of construction it now covers a total area of about 500,000 m². The total construction cost amounted to about 1.2 billion Canadian dollars.

History

End of 1940, the wealthy Persian family Ghermezian left their homeland and emigrated to New York. The father and patriarch Jacob Ghermezian sent his eldest son to Montreal, in order to study at the University in order later to take over the family business trading precious Persian carpets. Between 1960 and 1970, the family decided to immigrate to Canada, and she settled in Edmonton. In the late 1970s, the family had the idea to open a shopping mall.

The first part of the shopping center with 220 shops and a few restaurants opened in September 1981. The second part followed in September 1983; it was considerably larger than the first part and included the ice rink, amusement park Galaxy country, a further 240 shops, restaurants and cafes. The third part of the shopping center was opened in September 1985 and included the World Waterpark, Deep Sea Adventure, Dolphin Lagoon, Sea Life Caverns, and the Professor Who 's Adventure Golf. By completion of the third part, the area grew to 570.000m2

Presence

In the mall, there are nearly 800 shops and other facilities, including the three major department stores The Bay, Zellers and Sears. There are 26 cinemas and an IMAX 3D Cinema. Furthermore, there is the theme park Galaxy land, a water park, an aquarium, an ice rink, an artificial lake (Deep Sea Adventure ) and over 110 restaurants. The water park (World Waterpark) has 17 slides, the highest of which is 42 m high and a top speed of over 50 km / h for the daredevils allowed. Even the highest indoor bungee tower in the world is here in the bathroom. The World Waterpark is the largest indoor water park in North America. 10,000 people can be accommodated here. The artificial lake houses, among other things, a replica of the Santa Maria. For the 22 million visitors per year, the world's largest parking facilities with 23,000 parking spaces.

Records the shopping center:

  • The world's largest indoor amusement park
  • World 's largest indoor triple loop roller coaster
  • The world's largest indoor river
  • World's Largest Parking Lot
  • The world's largest permanently installed indoor bungee jumping tower
  • The world's largest wave pool

Film

2007, the majority of the film Christmas in Wonderland was filmed in the West Edmonton Mall.

Architect Galaxyland Ice hockey Santa María (ship) Mindbender (Galaxyland)
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