Berlin Eye to be Europe's largest wheel
A ferris wheel 50 metres taller than the London Eye is to be built in Berlin.
The 6,500 tonne steel wheel will be Europe's largest, at 185 metres tall, when it opens in 2009 in the German city.
The project highlights the extent to which the wheel, as a tourist attraction, has become the must-have status symbol of cities around the world.
The Berlin wheel will take 1,500 people at a time on a 35-minute trip and will cost £87million to build.
China is building several wheels, including one even bigger than Berlin's. The Great Beijing Wheel is set to stand 208 metres high when it is finished in 2009.
It was due to be ready for the 2008 Olympic Games but work was postponed several times. Other cities planning similar projects include Singapore, Dubai, Mumbai, Moscow and Orlando.
Gereon Asmuth, a commentator for Berlin's TAZ newspaper, said: "The wheel is the perfect symbol for the 21st century. It is completely superficial... a luxury symbolising nothing and at the same time embodying the very intoxication of being momentarily raised above nothingness."
