Inside the world's largest indoor theme park in Dubai

IMG Worlds of Adventure is as big as 28 football fields, measuring some 1.5 million square feet in size

The world’s largest indoor theme park opened its doors to public in Dubai last week to lure back some of the tourists and residents who often flee abroad during the scorching desert summer.

IMG Worlds of Adventure, an amusement park that cost more than $1 billion dollars and took three years to build, is as big as 28 football fields, measuring some 1.5 million square feet in size.



PHOTO: IMG Worlds of Adventure

"We wanted this to be an icon for Dubai itself and an icon for the region," said Lennard Otto, CEO of IMG Worlds of Adventure. "And opening the world's largest indoor theme park seemed very fitting for this market."

PHOTO: IMG Worlds of Adventure

Setting another record, the park's signature ride, the Velociraptor, is the tallest and fastest in the Emirate. It features eight stomach-churning loops and corkscrews.

PHOTO: IMG Worlds of Adventure

The park’s boxy exterior consists of a 140,000-square metre air-conditioned cathedral of entertainment teeming with animatronic dinosaurs, roller coasters, Marvel superheroes and Cartoon Network characters.



PHOTO: IMG Worlds of Adventure

Zombies pop out from dark corners of a haunted house and the Velociraptor coaster throttles passengers within a misty simulated rain forest dubbed the Lost Valley.

PHOTO: IMG Worlds of Adventure

As it stands now, stir-crazy families in Dubai – a tourism and financial hub which already boasts the world’s tallest building – have few places to stretch their legs beyond expensive malls while temperatures outside can approach 50 degrees Celsius (122 Fahrenheit).

PHOTO: IMG Worlds of Adventure

PHOTO: IMG Worlds of Adventure

PHOTO: IMG Worlds of Adventure

This article originally appeared on CNN.