The Eighth Wonder of the World on Tap for Atlanta Area

Details are a bit sketchy, but developers in Georgia have ambitious plans for an enormous complex in DeKalb County that would include an indoor theme park, an indoor water park, a performing arts center, a 1000-room hotel, a dining-shopping-entertainment area, and a 450-unit condominium development. Scheduled to open in mid-2009, the Grand Empire resort would sport a Seven Wonders of the World theme. According to Rodney Zehner, the project's director of operations, the resort will feature some unique roller coasters, including The Splash Party, a suspended coaster that will travel through and between both the indoor theme park and the indoor water park. The parks' guests will be able to use water cannons and drench the coaster's riders, he says. While there has been a deluge of indoor water parks recently, there aren't a heck of a lot of indoor theme parks. (Among the more notable ones are The Park at Mall of America--which used to be Camp Snoopy--in Minnesota and The Adventuredome at Circus Circus in Las Vegas). Interestingly, there was an indoor theme park in Atlanta in the mid-1970s called The World of Sid & Marty Kroft (based on the trippy kids TV show, H.R. Pufnstuf) that was short-lived. It is now part of CNN's headquarters. Read more about the Grand Empire Resort Indoor Theme Park and the Grand Empire Resort Indoor Water Park.

• Grand Empire Resort Photo Gallery
• Six Flags Over Georgia Overview