For years, Macau has been trying to give Las Vegas a run for its money and establish itself as the biggest gambling empire in the world, in addition to the online one, of course, where there are such things like free spins, and, let’s be honest: nothing can beat that. However, in the last decade alone, Macau has seen some enormous investments in building state-of-the-art casinos, hotel resorts, and other infrastructure.
It should go without saying that Macau is one of the most impressive architectural wonderlands of the 21st century. The city’s most popular architectural landmarks stand out with their daring and awe-inspiring design and present a completely unique experience to its visitors.
The Most Famous Macau Buildings
Including Cotai and Taipa, there are over 50 casinos in Macau. Rarely is any one of them only a casino, but they are rather multi-purposed buildings that also offer hospitality, housing, fine dining, convention facilities, pools and spas, entertainment centers, and even some theme parks.
The Morpheus building in the City of Dreams complex cannot go unnoticed. It has a distinctive exoskeleton design and three puncture openings in the middle. The building was designed by Zaha Hadid and it was opened in 2018. Morpheus is over 500 feet tall, has 40 floors, and over 700 hotel rooms.
While Morpheus may be the most unconventional building in Macau by its design, the most famous one by far is the Grand Lisboa. Standing over 850 feet tall, this is the flagship hotel of Macau that can be seen from almost every part of the city. The building’s shape represents the lotus flower which is the national symbol and can be found on Macau’s flag.
Another distinctive part of Macau’s skyline is the MGM Grand hotel and casino. It consists of several cantilevering blocks that are stacked on top of each other, with each having a different color. A similar design was used to make MGM Cotai that is even bigger than its twin building in Macau.
Other notable buildings in the city include L’Arc Macau, Mandarin Oriental, Bank of China, The Venetian, Altira, and more.
Longest Bridges in the World
The larger part of Macau (Taipa, Cotai, and Coloane Village) is located on an island and is separated from mainland China. However, there are three bridges that connect the Macau peninsula with the island, the most notable being Point da Amizade which is a 3-mile-long structure that opened in 1994.
Nevertheless, the most impressive Macau bridge is definitely the Zhuhai Bridge that was finished in October last year. It connects Macau to Hong Kong and it broke the record for being the longest sea bridge in the world (34 miles).
Historical Architecture
Although Macau is known for building new and original casino resorts all over the city, this place has existed for centuries, and there are a lot of historical buildings worth checking out as well.
Popular tourist locations like the ruins of St. Paul’s Cathedral, Na Tcha and A-Ma temples, Mount and Guia fortresses, and the Moorish Barracks, are just some of the architectural landmarks that evoke the city’s past times.
