Melinda Gates, at least, has been open about her desire to live in a smaller house.

As experts in philanthropy, finance, technology and global health scramble to predict what the divorce of Melinda and Bill Gates could mean for their industries, others are wondering: Who will get their lakefront estate in the Seattle suburbs, which is valued at upward of $131 million? And will the public finally get a peek inside?

The couple, worth an estimated $124 billion according to Forbes, announced their split in a joint statement posted to their social media profiles on Monday. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, of which they are co-chairs, said that nothing will change in its organizational structure.

But their 66,000-square-foot home on the shore of Lake Washington is another matter. The sprawling complex — which, at the time of a 1995 New York Times story, included a spa, a 60-foot pool, a gym paneled with stone from a mountain peak in the Pacific Northwest, a trampoline room, and a stream for salmon, trout and other fish — got the nickname Xanadu 2.0 from Mr. Gates’s biographers.

(Xanadu is a reference to the large, lavish property that belongs to the tycoon at the heart of the film “Citizen Kane.” The 2.0 refers to Mr. Gates’s technological innovations.)

The details of the waterfront compound have been kept incredibly private by the Gates family — so much so that a tour of the property went for $35,000 at a charity auction in 2009, according to TechCrunch. The Gateses own multiple other parcels of land surrounding the main property, according to public records, so walking by to catch a glimpse is out of the question.

But an intern for Microsoft who made it inside in 2007 was allowed to write about the visit on the company’s blog. According to his account, the house is built out of “orangey wood” and the sand on the beach is imported from Hawaii. The wood is Douglas fir; the origin of the sand, unconfirmed. (“Going down Bill’s driveway is like arriving at Jurassic Park,” the intern wrote. “The landscaping is just insane.”)