Las Vegas
The city that was born in the middle of the desert
Who had the idea of building a huge city in a place where it hardly ever rains? That is one of the most surprising questions in geography. Las Vegas, in the state of Nevada, is surrounded by a great desert, with very high temperatures in summer and very little water. Even so, hundreds of thousands of people live there and millions of visitors arrive each year. That is why it is considered a truly impossible city.
A place where almost no one should live
Las Vegas is located in the Mojave Desert, one of the driest in North America. During the summer, the temperature can easily exceed 40 °C and rainfall is very scarce. In many nearby places, trees barely grow, and the landscape is made up of sand, rocks, and plants adapted to the heat.
If someone had seen this place two hundred years ago, they would probably have thought that a great city could never be built there. However, history took a very different path.
It all started with a little water
A long time ago, Las Vegas was just a small oasis. Beneath the ground there were springs that allowed travelers crossing the desert to rest. In fact, the name “Las Vegas” means “the meadows,” because green plants grew around those springs in the middle of the dry landscape.
Over time, the railroad, new roads, and more and more inhabitants arrived. But the big change occurred when the Hoover Dam was built on the nearby Colorado River. Thanks to that enormous project, it became possible to store water and produce electricity for a region that kept growing.
Where does the water come from?
Today, a large part of the water that Las Vegas uses comes from Lake Mead, a huge reservoir created by the Hoover Dam. That water travels through pipes and canals to the city to supply homes, parks, hotels, and schools.
Since water is a very valuable resource, Las Vegas has also learned to reuse a large part of it. The water used in homes and buildings is cleaned for reuse, and there are regulations to prevent waste. In a city surrounded by desert, every drop counts.
A city full of light
When night falls, Las Vegas changes completely. Thousands of lights illuminate its streets and buildings, to the point that they can be seen from space in satellite photographs. It is one of the brightest places on the planet at night.
The huge screens, the illuminated buildings, and the light shows make walking along its avenues very different from strolling through any other city. While outside there is only darkness and desert, in the center everything seems full of color and movement.
Millions of people in an unexpected place
Every year, millions of tourists visit Las Vegas. They come from many countries to attend concerts, watch shows, visit amazing hotels, or simply to see a city that seems to defy nature.
To accommodate so many people, roads, airports, hospitals, restaurants, hotels, and thousands of workers are needed. All of this operates in a place where, due to its natural conditions, it would be very difficult to imagine such a large city.
Why is it an impossible city?
Las Vegas shows that geography greatly influences people’s lives. Climate, water, and terrain usually determine where cities are born. Normally, large populations develop near rivers, coasts, or fertile lands.
However, Las Vegas did just the opposite. It grew in the middle of one of the driest deserts in North America thanks to the arrival of water, electricity, and great engineering works. Maintaining a city of this size in such an extreme place requires enormous organization and very careful use of resources.
Today Las Vegas is one of the best examples of how people can transform a place with the help of technology. That is why Las Vegas belongs to the category of Impossible Cities. It is a place that seems to defy the rules of geography: a large city full of life, lights, and inhabitants where, when looking at the surrounding landscape, one would think there should only be sand, rocks… and desert.
