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    London's great Millennium Dome was a stunning bit of architecture; but the exhibition inside it was a relative failure. Although twenty million people live within a couple of hours' drive or train ride of the great white dome, and even though most of those who did visit it said that the "Millennium Exhibition" was worth the visit, visitor numbers were low. In spite of a vast marketing campaign, the Millennium Dome only attracted about half the expected number of visitors, and in financial terms it was a catastrophic flop.
    The story of Britain's other great new dome, however, could hardly be more different; the "Eden Project", located near the town of St. Austell in Cornwall, lies in a peripheral region of the British Isles, almost 400 km. from London - a region of low population and high unemployment. Most of the visitors who go to Eden have to make a road journey of at least five hours to reach it. Yet the Eden Project has been the biggest success story of the year in Britain. Originally, director Tim Smit and his team set themselves a target of 400,000 visitors in the first year; later, seeing the good coverage that their project was getting in the media, they raised the target to 700,000.

    In the event, their success has been way beyond all expectation, and the 700,000th visitor passed through the gates of Eden in July, just four months after the official opening! So what is this "Eden Project" that has become the most talked-about new tourist attraction in Britain, and is attracting visitors from many other countries too? And why are they coming to visit it now, even though it will be several years before the project really begins to reach maturity? In short - as its name implies - the Eden Project is a garden. More specifically, it is living museum of plants, an environmental centre containing the largest "greenhouse" in Europe, a spectacular domed structure in which - within a few years - giant trees from tropical jungles will grow to their full height.

    Today, even though many of the plants were put in place less than a year ago, Eden's "tropical biome" already feels like a mature rainforest. Inside the temperature is around 28°, and humidity in the region of 100%. Huge tropical trees reach upwards towards the great dome, while beneath them a path winds up through a dense forest of exotic plants - palm trees and banana groves, coffee bushes and cola trees, plus hundreds of other weird and wonderful varieties growing in almost natural conditions here in the south west of Cornwall. The plants have been brought in from all over the world, but mostly from other plant houses and scientific research institutions in Britain and Europe. Within the biome, they have been planted out in different geographic areas, allowing visitors to wander from a South American jungle to an Indonesian jungle, or even a tropical island jungle environment; and for those for whom international travel means an opportunity to experience the very different environments that exist in different parts of the world, the tropical biome at Eden offers the chance to go around the world in eighty minutes... and be back in Cornwall for lunch, ready for another trip in the afternoon.

    Eden's second large biome, somewhat smaller than the tropical dome, is given over to plants from the "Mediterranean" regions of our planet, including naturally the countries of southern Europe, but also coastal southern California, and parts of South Africa and Australia which enjoy a similar climate. At present this Mediterranean biome is far less interesting and less dramatic than the tropical biome. In this dry climate, most of the plants are still small - and those that are larger will take many years to grow to full size. Perhaps the most interesting feature is a small grove of ancient olive trees, transplanted from southern Italy and replanted in this biome - probably the only olive grove north of Provence; yet even this is nothing like the "real thing" which many visitors will have had to occasion to see first hand during holiday trips in southern Europe.

    Three quarters of the Eden Project's plants, however, grow out of doors, in the very sheltered environment of this former Cornish china-clay pit. South west Cornwall enjoys an unusually mild climate; in winter time, the temperature hardly ever dips below freezing, and snowfalls are very rare. Furthermore, protected in its pit, Eden does not suffer from the most damaging weather features that affect Cornwall, namely the strong Atlantic storms that can blow in from the west. The outdoor areas thus include an interesting selection of plants that are not normally grown in Britain, such as a little field of sunflowers, a small plot of hemp (which, the signs stress, is not marijuana, though it looks identical), and even a small tea plantation! Nevertheless, the outdoor section of Eden is, for the time being, rather disappointing. Most of the plants are young, and it will be several years before this outdoor section even begins to reach maturity. By next year, the plants will have had a bit more time to develop and grow, and the whole place will certainly look more mature; but after having visited Eden in the summer of 2001, I am now determined to wait for another four years before returning. The difference by then should be impressive.

    That being said, I should add that the Eden Project is already hugely impressive, and even if the vast tropical biome were the only section open, it would still be worth a visit. While the project's great success can largely be put down to good marketing, it is also, basically, a good product. Designed by Sir Norman Foster, probably Europe's most famous contemporary architect, the great tropical biome is one of the most stunning structures of our time, which would be worth a visit even if it were empty; filled, as it is, with luxuriant tropical vegetation, it is a really unforgettable experience.

    Plants, as the information at the Eden Project stresses, are among the earth's most valuable and sometimes most threatened resources. Since the beginning of human history, man has used them, cultivated them, worked with them, and abused them in millions of different ways. When Tim Smit first dreamed up the Eden Project less than ten years ago, he imagined a great garden where people could come to experience a little bit of the enormous biodiversity that has allowed humans to live and flourish in almost every land mass on our planet. Without any doubt, he has succeeded. It takes a dreamer to make a dream come true.