Since the world was first introduced to escalators by designer Jesse W Reno in 1896 at Coney Island, they have developed and advanced at a rapid pace.

It is predicted that during the coming years the world is, apparently, on the edge of an escalator revolution. Architects and designers are increasingly making escalators more daring, stunning and complex.

Take a lot at five of the world’s most spectacular moving walkways in existence.

Venetian Casino, Macau

Escalators and elegance do not generally tend to go hand in hand, unless you are lucky enough to stay at the Venetian Macau Hotel in Macau. This luxury hotel, which is the fifth largest building in the world, boasts a stunningly elegant curved escalator which runs through the hotel casino’s main gaming floor.

Westfield Shopping Centre, San Francisco

Since spiral escalators were first installed by Mitsubishi in Japan in the 1980s, they have proved a popular feature in modern shopping malls across the world. Perhaps the most spectacular of spiral mall escalators is in Westfield Shopping Centre in San Francisco, which, despite comprising of over 6,000 different components, has only had to be closed once for maintenance work since it was opened in 1990.

Namesti Miru Metro Station, Prague

The world’s longest escalators can be found 53 meters under the ground in the Namesti Miru metro station in Prague. These incredible escalators comprise of 533 steps and are 87 meters long. Metro travellers can enjoy relaxing on the escalators, as a ride takes two minutes and 15 seconds.

Umeda Sky Building

Situated in the heart of Osaka in Japan, lies the Umeda Sky Building, a truly sublime skyscraper that features two immense towers facing each other. Two sensational moving stairs – the world’s highest escalators – literally ‘bridge the gap’ between the two towers, and being enclosed by glass, enable visitors to gap in awe at the minute-looking city way below them.

Design, architecture and technology have come a long way since Jesse Reno created the first elevated moving stairway in 1891. Who would have thought that not much than a century later escalators could be made completely airtight and could carry passengers under water? This is exactly the case at the Hualien Farglory Ocean Park in Taiwan, where visitors can travel through the aquarium on an airtight escalator, watching the sharks, whales and other exotic sea creatures swim overhead.

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