Discover some lesser-known facts about the Millennium Dome ........

The Dome is one of the biggest engineering projects in the country, and has used some of the best designers in the world. Buro Happold has been awarded the Royal Academy of Engineering MacRobert Award 1999 (Britain's premier prize for engineering) for its work on the Dome. The Dome has an overall diameter of 365 metres, an internal diameter of 320 metres, a circumference of a kilometre, and is 50 metres high at its central point. It encloses a ground floor area of over 80,000 sq metres.

To give an idea of the sheer size of the Dome, it could contain 12 football pitches, 1,100 Olympic-sized swimming pools or 18,000 London double-decker buses. It would take Niagra Falls about 15 minutes to fill the Dome. The Millennium Dome will take all its visitors during the year 2000 on an unforgettable journey, reflecting on who we are, where we live and what we do.

There are 14 exhibit Zones in the Dome - Body, Work, Learning, Money, Play, Journey, Self Portrait, Living Island, Talk, Faith, Home Planet, Rest, Mind, and Shared Ground. In addition, there is a 500 seat theatre inside the Dome (the 'Our Town Story' stage), and alongside the Dome is 'Skyscape'. Skyscape is a new multi-use entertainment venue housing two 2,500 seat cinemas. In the centre of the Dome is a vast arena, where several times a day visitors will see the Millennium Show, produced by Mark Fisher and the rock star Peter Gabriel.

The following businesses and organisations are sponsoring the Dome: BAA, Barclays, Boots The Chemists, BAE SYSTEMS, British Airways, BSkyB, BT, Camelot, CGU, Coca Cola, Corporation of London, De Beers, Ford, GEC, Kodak, L'Oreal, Manpower, Marks and Spencer, Mars, McDonald's NatWest Group, Premier Brands, Prudential, Reuters, Roche, Tesco, Wall's, Woolwich and 3Com.

In addition, financial support for the Faith zone is being provided by organisations with Christian affiliations (the Laing Family Trusts, the Jerusalem Trust, three other trusts and foundations, and an international company with links to the UK), and from the Vedic tradition (the Hinduja Foundation).

The Dome.  One Amazing Day.  One Year Only.  Thank God.