This free attraction is at one of the entrances to the giant Mirage hotel and casino in Las Vegas. The tigers are rotated regularly and live elsewhere when not on exhibit. The Secret Garden and Dolphin Habitat are a seperate gated admission attraction at the same resort.
Yes, isn't it hideous? A large part of it is a swimming pool. It's very stage-y, with several platforms for showcasing the tigers. Remember, this was built to promote Siegfried and Roy's stage show at the casino which featured their big cat collection, including Montichore, the tiger that mauled one of them during a show.
I visited Las Vegas in 2003, and like almost all of the overpopulated city this tiger enclosure is as fake as it gets. To call it hideous and inappropriate would be generous.
I think the thing which best summed up Las Vegas for me was that, when we went a few years back, Lake Mead (the source of all the city's water) only had three years supply left. Yet the city is the fastest growing in North America (the population increases by 20,000 people a month) so all these people were coming in and if it didn't rain in the next three years (bearing in mind the city is in the middle of the Nevada Desert) the place would become a ghost town. As snowleopard says, the whole thing is just one tacky, plastic facade - the American dream.
