Spectacular stadium to light up Cup

SOCCER CITY: Built to look like a vast cooking pot simmering above a ring of fire, South Africa's Soccer City Stadium promises to be an unforgettable venue for next year's World Cup and one of the world's most spectacular sporting arenas.

Costing 3 billion rand ($373 million), the 94,000-capacity stadium is distinctive, resembling a huge calabash - a hollowed-out gourd used as a cooking pot or water carrier throughout Africa.

The calabash has inspired the colouring of the orange and brown membrane that surrounds the stadium while a ring of lights will illuminate the bottom of the building, simulating fire underneath the pot.