Trying to describe Las Vegas in a few hundred words is a formidable task. Should the focus be on the city?s mystic qualities ? the dazzling lights and glittering resorts where more than 35 million pleasure-seeking tourists wager millions of dollars every year? Or should one look beyond the myth, at a southwestern metropolitan area that is home to 1.4 million people ? a place with schools, parks, grocery stores, and quiet neighborhoods populated by people from every state in the union?

One city, two stories. But that?s always been the history of Las Vegas. Its very creation seems like the ultimate contrast: Las Vegas, Spanish for "the meadows," was founded by Mormon missionaries. These early settlers were followed by westward-traveling pioneers and, later, by the men who built Hoover Dam, the area?s first big tourist attraction. The legalization of gambling in the 30s transformed the city into an American Xanadu, where a street lined with stately pleasure domes tempts travelers searching for excitement, cuisine, entertainment and shopping.