66 - Hanging Gardens of Ionica
Welcome to Emerald, the Zone that is home to the largest man-made park in the entire city called The Hanging Gardens of Ionica which takes up half of the entire Zone. Inspired by the Hanging Gardens of Babylon and the Pyramid of the Sun, The Hanging Gardens of Ionica is a combination of a park and a pyramid which consists of four levels.
At the top is one of the most beautiful buildings in the world, The Lotus Flower, which is a Science and Technology museum. However, some have speculated that under The Lotus Flower is a super secretive Artificial Intelligence research lab run by the Electronic and Virtual Logistics Corporation in partnership with the Ionican government.
The park has 8 entrances. The main entrance is on the South side and it is the only one that leads all the way to The Lotus Flower on the fourth level.
This is the South-West entrance to the park. The buildings that surround the Hanging Gardens are of course placed to provide its residents the best possible access and views of the park.
On the Western side we can see low rise mini-apartments arranged in a criss--cross formation as seen in other Zones like Sarai and Tan Chudan.
The entrance on the North West side faces the Emerald Mall, the largest horizontal mall in the inner-city.
The Northern entrance is the narrowest of the 8 and it faces Emerald's financial district. You will often see stock-brokers and hedge fund managers walking through the park during lunch hour.
Near the North East entrance to the park can be found the Guggenheim Ionica, an art museum which features some of the greatest contemporary and classic art collections the world has ever known.
On the East side is Emerald College, a small but prestigious school funded by EVL Corp. (Electronic and Virtual Logistics Corporation) which focuses on Computer Sciences. The in the frame may look old, but inside the facilities are state of the art.
The headquarters of EVL Corp. looks directly on to the South East entrance of the park. It is alleged that the super secret AI research lab inside/underneath The Hanging Gardens can be accessed through this building.
Here is a close up view of one of the diagonal sides of the pyramid.
And finally we reach the top where we see The Lotus Flower, or as some have dubbed it The Temple of Science and Technology. Inside is a state of the art museum that displays some of the newest and most advanced prototypes and scientific theories. It's not the type of museum that looks back to the past, but forward to the future.
A bird's eye view reviews the epic scale of park/pyramid and gives a stunning look at how the water cascades all the way from the top.
Then night falls and the Hanging Gardens of Ionica become an even more magnificent sight to behold.
A beam of purple light reaches all the way to the sky and reaches out as a beacon of hope for the world. Some have speculated that the light beams signals to satellites in outer-space but no one has been able to confirm that the beam is sending out any signals.
The rest is more of that Ionica night-magic. Enjoy!
Comments, suggestions, and questions are always appreciated. Thanks for visiting.
slickbg56: THE GIF! You've outdone yourself here. That's pretty impressive that you had photos of the before and after of the city after all that time. I've never seen that tricked out shiny black building in the 4th picture. Pretty futuristic. Well done on the constant rebuilding.
Ah yes, The Borg cube. Such a fantastic BAT. Thanks.
Ln X: That Borg cube building is frickin' awesome! Star Trek nerdgasm!
Pretty much my reaction when I first found it on the STEX.
Simul8ter8: Always awe-stricken after seeing your journal.
keep at it.
It's been a long time Simul8ter8. I've been hoping to see you make a comeback. Thanks.
Schulmanator: The city planners have been busy increasing awesomeness... Looking good! Great settings for great buildings.
With people like you around I'm always inspired to make something bigger and better. Thanks.
Mymyjp: Like LnX, your "Borg" looking building is so awesome! Funny thing is that I was actually watching it on TV! lol Excellent job as always.
Ah, watching shows on TV, I remember when I used to do that. Thanks Mymyjp.
Benedict: Congratulations, your CJ is number one on Ben's Top Ten this week.
Brilliant work again this week - and you're still at number one on BTT.
My thanks to everyone who visit and supports this CJ.
And to you Ben for diligently compiling all these stats and maintaining the lists.
KonstantinII: I really can't say which version of Illium I like more, the old one, or the new one? Both are good. That is an impressive re-design of the city. I am probably too lazy to have re-designed a large city like that. I particularly like the vertical farms in this image. Nice touch of realism there. It would be realistic to have vertical farms to feed all the people who live here. Countries that import most of their food are too dependent on foreign trade.
I think that from a distance the older version may look slightly more impressive but when you got up close you could see it was a real mess. I love those vertical farms too. Thanks.
Huston: Beautiful redesign. It looks so much more fluid with the new design! And I'm glad to see one of my BATs tucked in comfortably in your city 
And to think I made a Illium related update as well
AWesome job overall Militant
Yeah there are actually 2 instances of your BAT in that city. The Mayhem Memorial Plaza is probably one of my most used BATs these days. Thanks for sharing it. Pretty funny that we both released an Illium update in the same week. Get out of my head Huston! Or wait, maybe I'm in yours...
Terring: Great work, dude
Good to hear from ya. Thanks.
TekindusT: THIS is urban renewal!!
Yeah, feels like I've been doing a lot of that recently.
jmsepe: Nice image sceneries, I like the one with the terminal station near the waterfront. 
Glad you like it. Thanks.
Basilins: How do you make that Toyota Center work ? I think there is no road connection but it needs that.
That's not the Toyota Center. It's the Tokyo Dome, can't remember where I got it.
mrsmartman: Great work. I am curious that you keep remaking the city of Illium. Personally, I like the one with more buildings.
I've re-made quite a few tiles, I've only remade Illium the most because it is one of the oldest. I think I do it because I'm not satisfied. At a glace the one with more buildings might look better but when you go in and look at the layout of the roads and buildings you see it isn't as good.
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