Cutting-edge contemporary style and barefoot luxury make the Conrad Maldives Rangali Island a mecca for style connoisseurs, but what truly sets the hotel apart is its most famous attraction: the world’s first underwater restaurant.

Luxury hotels in the Maldives outdo themselves with creative ideas to attract visitors. Conrad has established its place in the avant-garde with Ithaa (and later with the three-person submarine!). Other hotels are catching up, like Anantara Resort Kihavah—but Ithaa remains one of the most iconic underwater structures in the world.

Ithaa was designed by New Zealand based design consultancy M.J. Murphy Ltd, specializing in large aquarium works.

The structure was constructed and assembled in Singapore and shipped to Maldives in one, 275-ton piece, on a huge ocean-going barge (with its own 300t-capacity crane on board). The whole thing was then lowered, stabilized with sand ballast and fixed into position near Conrad’s Sunset Grill Restaurant, five meters below the sea level.

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