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Helen Fowler
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| Revealed: city's top visitor attraction |
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It was voted favourite visitor attraction in Edinburgh, the Lothians and Fife last year. And it's not hard to see why. Our Dynamic Earth offers the chance to explore the earth through interactive displays and impressive technology. Writing from personal experience, it makes a great day out for children and adults alike. Kids fasinated There are lots of buttons to keep children occupied. Plus the almost obligatory dinosaur exhibits. I have to confess I don't quite get the current obsession with the creatures but they fascinate my kids. What I enjoyed the most was getting a better sense of the processes that have shaped the Earth. Membrane stretched over steel skeleton The building alone, one of the most distinctive in Edinburgh, is worth further investigation. It is formed from a membrane stretched a steel skeleton. The centre was built eleven years ago. Government funding set it up as part of an urban regeneration plan to revitalise former industrial land at the lower end of the Royal Mile. Next door to Parliament It is next door to another iconic Edinburgh building; the Scottish Parliament, designed by Catalan architect Enric Miralles. And close to the Palace of Holyroodhouse. Once inside, you can wander through the dry tundra to the bottom of the ocean. Experience the sticky heat of a tropical rainforest. Investigate a barren volcano landscape (and no, I'm not talking about neighbouring Arthur's Seat, itself an extinct volcano). Get close to polar bears Dynamic Earth explores population growth, concepts of time and climate change. It's a chance to find out about how the earth was created. In the 'polar adventure' section, you can get up close to ice bergs, polar bears, penguins and ice caves. You can even enjoy a simulation of the lights of Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights) that appear in the sky in northern latitudes around the equinox. Like the real thing The rainforest gives the most authentic experience of the environment you could get without actually travelling to Latin America. You can hear monkeys chatter and tropical birds squawking. One adult free in January The soundtrack features the rustle of trees, thunder and rain. You can wander through tundra, temperate forest, urban, desert and grassland landscapes. Not bad, considering you won't even be leaving Edinburgh. Visit before 31 January 2010 and one adult goes free with every child (aged three to fifteen) admitted.
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