While we can’t possibly tell you all there is to know about this spectacular cultural complex and its components, we can give you little snippets. The rest, you’ll have to come and find out for yourself. We are certain that it will be beyond your imagination like it was for us.

Whispering arches

In the City of Arts and Sciences you can have a conversation with someone that is 50 metres away from you (about 164 feet), without using a phone and without raising your voice above normal conversation levels.

If you place yourself at one end of the entrance arches of the Science Museum, facing the wall, you will be able to hold a normal conversation with someone standing at the other end, while being almost 50 metres (about 164 feet) away from each other.

This is because the structure plays with sound in such a way that the acoustic waves from one end of the arch are channelled through the structure, instead of being scattered in all directions like they normally would, thus being able to reach the other end.

Water activities

You can do a number of activities in the shallow and ample waters that snake through the City of Arts and Sciences. Every year starting in March, the complex offers its visitors the possibility to rent water bikes, kayaks, and water balls, especially in the areas surrounding the Hemisfèric. The activities are normally available until the weather holds up, in autumn.

Water balls are large plastic balloons that get inflated with air and close hermetically once you’re inside. They are 2 metres (about 6.5 feet) in diameter and inside them, you’ll have the sensation of walking on water. The activity costs €5.00 euros for 10 minutes.

Kayaks and small boats are also available for rentals. The activity cost €2.50 per person for 10 minutes. You can, of course, rent them for however long your want. Kayaks hold up to two people, while the boats up to six.

Water bikes are boards on which you stand that can be manoeuvred through a handlebar. They move thanks to the fins underneath, powered by your feet on the board, which you will move as you do on a step machine. The rental costs €5.00 euros every 10 minutes.

Rental hours are the same for all activities, and they go from Monday to Sunday from 10:30 am to 7:30 pm.

The harp of Valencia

The Pont de l’Assut de l’Or is a single-pylon cable-stayed bridge. This means that the bridge has one tower (pylon), from which cables support the bridge deck, forming a harp-string-like pattern. It is precisely because of this that Valencians call the structure the Harp Bridge (Puente del Arpa), or, perhaps a bit less elegantly, the Ham Holder (Jamonero).

To take in the composition and the back-curved pylon, it is best to admire the bridge from a distance, either side of the City of Arts and Sciences. This pylon, or mast, represents the highest point of the city, 127 metres (about 417 feet) from the ground.

To appreciate the huge scale of the bridge though, it’s essential to cross it. This way you’ll be able to see the 29 cables sustaining the 180 metres (590 feet) long deck.

The City of Arts and Sciences on the screen

This enormous, futuristic complex creates a landscape that looks straight out of a Denis Villeneuve sci-fi movie. It has in fact been used as a film and tv location more than once.

A Doctor Who episode, the second episode of the tenth series, Smile, was filmed here. The complex was also featured in the George Clooney film Tomorrowland. The location appears as the headquarters of the company DELOS in the third season of the HBO series Westworld.