Underwater Marvels

A co-worker of mine sent me an email today about this wonderful underwater restaurant. The email was so interesting, I had to research and blog about it… actually, my friend told me I would probably do so… and he was right!
The restaurant’s name is Ithaa and I found out that is the world’s first mostly-glass restaurant, located several meters below sea level in the Indian Ocean at the Maldives of Hilton Maldives Resort & Spa.
The restaurant has a capacity of only 14 people, offering a clear acrylic 270 degree view, allowing you to watch the marine wildlife as you enjoy your meal. It was designed and built as Wikipedia said: “by M.J. Murphy Ltd.- a design consultancy based in New Zealand - and was opened on April of 2005.”
According to M.J. Murphy, the structure is supported on four concrete filled steel piles, which were driven into the ocean. This technique was used in order to minimize the damage to the already existing reef.

Now, after the success of Ithaa, there’s already a design for an underwater hotel, which will be called Poseidon Mystery Island. It will be located in the northeastern side of Fiji. Once finished, it’ll become the world’s first undersea resort, therefore, it'll be the only place you can spend the night several feet underwater.
The hotel will include 24 luxury rooms, a restaurant and bar/lounge, a library, conference room, wedding chapel, spa, and a suite with ultra-luxury accommodation and spectacular view to the undersea. The price? Well, the resort is expected to start at $15,000 per person, per week. Here are some renderings of the final design stages of the future underwater resort and a cool video I found.