All human life takes a trip into time

YOU walk into the androgynous zone: a vast human body, devoid of gender. You enter through the waist, take a lift up to the brain and exit through the ankle.

This is the Body Zone, one of 13 zones at the Dome - though one might yet turn out to be a "virtual zone". All human life is certainly here: the body, the mind, the spirit, work and play, rides and live performances. One can even glide with a dozen or so others on a floating bed, the floater- coaster. Welcome to the Millennium Dome:

The Body Zone: Visitors are taken into the world of human biology and medical science inside the sitting human figure, which will be covered with pictures of children. Health reproduction and cosmetic surgery are all explored. And one exits the biggest reproduction of a human body in the world to come face to face with the biggest ever model of a baby. Family values usher in the new millennium.

Spirit Level: Here, say the Dome's managers, you will "experience a moment of peace and reflect on our deepest common beliefs".

Basically, you choose your religion, choose the appropriate garden and reflect. There will be, it is somewhat optimistically promised, "oases of calm" set within an area of garden which draws inspiration from the sheltered calm of a Christian monastic cloister, the austerity of Japanese Zen gardens and the formal exuberance of Muslim gardens.

The Learning Curve: This will feature classrooms of the future via a themed ride, and you will be able to talk to children in their schools worldwide on the Internet.

Licensed to Skill: This zone, peppered with buttock- clenchingly awful puns, looks at changing employment opportunities through multimedia galleries.

Dreamscape: Home of the "floater-coaster". The closest the Dome comes to being a health farm. This zone promotes relaxation and contemplation. Adults and children take their seats in boats which are designed as 16- seater beds, floating off through dream environments.

Serious Play: This is the most technologically animated area of the Dome. Huge multi-media displays rise towards the roof. The Parallax ride takes visitors upwards on a moving pavement. Coherent images resolve from apparently formless colours and shapes while an inflated transparent skin gently rises and falls. From the top of the ride, visitors can abseil, climb or simply take a lift down to a lower level and hands-on play activities.

Living Island: This explores our relationship with the environment through the curious location of a British seaside resort complete with beach, fish and chips stall, deck chairs, sun and sea. In a funfair and pleasure beach setting, visitors try out games, rides and trials of skill and strength. It's billed as "the environmental challenge as it has never been seen before". And who would argue with that?

Zones, on which no details have yet been released, include: Transaction, which will show how money and finance are changing your life; Shared Ground, a journey through the British Isles; The Mind, which will allow you inside the human brain; Atmosphere, in which you can experience the wonder of the planet; Time To Talk, where we learn better ways of talking to each other (an area sponsored by BT); and UK @ Now, where we apparently will learn, perhaps on the internet "what being British means for all our futures".