The Opera House: Australia’s Most Famous Landmark Turns 50

(CNN) - Saying that the Sydney Opera House is a well-known icon of Australia is kind of like saying the Amazon is a creek. The building, which turns 50 years old on October 20, has been given a cultural value of $11.4 billion by the global financial firm Deloitte.

Sure, the plum Sydney waterfront real estate is worth plenty – but the real value, according to Deloitte, is the way it symbolizes Australia all over the world, becoming one of those buildings, like the Eiffel Tower and the Empire State Building, that can be recognized by its silhouette alone.

Inaugurated on October 20, 1973, by the late Queen Elizabeth II, the Opera House now welcomes more than one million visitors every year.

Danish architect Jorn Utzon won the competition to design the Opera House in 1957. He would later win the Pritzker Prize, which is considered the Nobel of architecture.

The Opera House’s fine dining restaurant, Bennelong, gets its name from the Gadigal word for the Sydney harbor area, and Aboriginal artist Megan Cope made a site-specific artwork, “Whispers,” out of poles and oyster shells for the 50th anniversary celebrations.

While plenty of tourists visit the opera house to attend shows, have a meal at one of the restaurants inside the building, or just take a guided tour, the team behind the house also wants local Sydneysiders to feel like they can swing by anytime.