Your eyes settle on an 8.5-acre artificial lake holding more than 22 million gallons of water, improbably placed in the middle of the Mojave Desert. The Bellagio Fountains use 1,214 individual water shooters, some capable of projecting water 460 feet into the air, choreographed to music ranging from Sinatra to opera to contemporary pop. The shows run every 30 minutes during the day and every 15 minutes after dark. They are free to watch from the sidewalk.
The engineering behind the fountains is extraordinary. The water is recycled in a closed system that uses far less water than the lake appears to consume. Compressed air and mechanical shooters create different effects: some blast water skyward in straight columns, others create fan-shaped curtains, still others fire in rapid sequence to create wave patterns. The whole system is computer-controlled with microsecond timing precision.
You may recognize this view. The climactic scene of Ocean's Eleven — the 2001 heist film with George Clooney, Brad Pitt, and Matt Damon — ends with the crew standing here watching the fountains, having successfully robbed the casino behind you. The fountains have become, in the global imagination, the image of Las Vegas itself: spectacular, extravagant, borderline absurd, and completely, irresistibly beautiful.