The
Poliedro de Caracas ("Caracas
PolyhedronIn elementary geometry a polyhedron is a geometric solid in three dimensions with flat faces and straight edges...
Arena") is an indoor sports arena, located on the grounds adjacent to
Hipodromo La RinconadaLa Rinconada Hippodrome is a race track for Thoroughbred horse racing that opened on July 5, 1959 in Coche, a neighborhood of south Caracas, Venezuela.Some of the important races held here annually include:...
, in
CaracasCaracas , officially Santiago de León de Caracas, is the capital and largest city of Venezuela; natives or residents are known as Caraquenians in English . It is located in the northern part of the country, following the contours of the narrow Caracas Valley on the Venezuelan coastal mountain range...
,
VenezuelaVenezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...
. It was designed by architect Thomas C. Howard of Synergetics, Inc, in Raleigh, NCin 1971. However, the Geodesic Dome was not concluded, until 1974, when US firm Charter Industries with Synergetics, Inc designed and manufactured the geodesic dome in Raleigh, NC.
It is housed beneath a
geodesic domeA geodesic dome is a spherical or partial-spherical shell structure or lattice shell based on a network of great circles on the surface of a sphere. The geodesics intersect to form triangular elements that have local triangular rigidity and also distribute the stress across the structure. When...
with a seating capacity of 13,000 and is used for concerts, sporting events such as
basketballBasketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...
,
ice skatingIce skating is moving on ice by using ice skates. It can be done for a variety of reasons, including leisure, traveling, and various sports. Ice skating occurs both on specially prepared indoor and outdoor tracks, as well as on naturally occurring bodies of frozen water, such as lakes and...
shows,
circusA circus is commonly a travelling company of performers that may include clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, unicyclists and other stunt-oriented artists...
es, and trade expositions like Autoshows, expomuebles (furniture). Lately, it has also been used for government-sponsored political events.
It was finished in 1974 and officially inaugurated with the fight between
George ForemanGeorge Edward Foreman is an American two-time former World Heavyweight Boxing Champion, Olympic gold medalist, ordained Baptist minister, author and successful entrepreneur...
and
Ken NortonKenneth Howard Norton Sr. is a former heavyweight boxer. He is best known for his 12-round victory over a peak Muhammad Ali where he famously broke Ali's jaw, on March 31, 1973, becoming only the second man to defeat Ali as a professional .He and Ali...
on March 26, 1974. It also served as the stage for many local acts like Melissa, Yordano and Ilan Chester, among others and international acts that visited Venezuela.
One of the main events that has taken place each year in El Poliedro (up to 2009), is the
Miss VenezuelaThe Miss Venezuela contest is the national beauty pageant of Venezuela and has been held since 1952. It is responsible for selecting the country's representatives to the Miss Universe, Miss World, Miss Earth and Miss International pageants .Under the direction of Osmel Sousa, Venezuela has...
beauty pageant.