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The Fountains of Paradise is a novel by Arthur C. Clarke. Set in the 22nd century, it describes the construction of a space elevator. This orbital "beanstalk" is a giant structure rising from the ground and linking with a satellite in geostationary or Clarke Orbit at the height of approximately 36,000 kilometers. Such a structure would be used to efficiently and effectively raise payloads to orbit without having to use rockets.

In the novel, Clarke uses the life of the ancient king Kalidasa to foreshadow the adventures of engineer Vannevar Morgan in his single-minded determination to realize the space elevator. Subplots in the novel include human colonization of the solar system and the first contact with extraterrestrial intelligence. Clarke also hypothesizes that religion in humans is a consequence of sexual reproduction, although the idea does not play a central role in the novel. The Fountains of Paradise is set in the fictional country of Taprobane, which Clarke has described as "about ninety percent congruent with the island of Ceylon (now Sri LankaThe Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka (known as Ceylon before 1972) is a tropical island nation off the southeast coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known in ancient times as Lanka Lankadweepa (meaning "Resplendent Land" in Sanskrit), Taprobane an)".

In the novel, Clarke envisions a microscopically thin but strong "hyperfilament" that makes the elevator possible. Although the hyperfilament is constructed from diamondAlternate meanings: Diamond (disambiguation Diamond is one of the natural allotropes of carbon (the main allotrope being graphite; see also allotropes of carbon). The hardest of naturally occurring materials, diamonds cut into multi-faceted shapes are amo in the novel, Clarke later expressed his belief that another type of carbon, BuckminsterfullereneFullerenes are molecules composed entirely of carbon, taking the form of a hollow sphere, ellipsoid, tube, ring, or plane. They are sometimes called buckyballs . The molecule was named for Richard Buckminster Fuller, a noted architect who created the geod, would play the role of hyperfilament in a real space elevator.