Coral Castle
One small man, working alone and at night, moved and carved more than a thousand tonnes of coral rock, and wouldn't say how.
What was reported
Edward Leedskalnin, a Latvian immigrant just over 1.5 metres tall, spent nearly 30 years building a garden of huge carved stones in Florida: walls, a table shaped like Florida, a giant crescent moon and a nine-tonne gate that could be pushed open with one finger. In all, he is said to have worked more than 1,000 tonnes of coral limestone.
He worked alone, mostly at night, and when asked how he did it, he said he knew the secrets of the people who built the pyramids. He even moved the whole garden to a new site in the 1930s.
Explanations offered
Photographs show Leedskalnin's tools: tripods, chains, pulleys and winches. Engineers say levers and patience can move very heavy stones, and that coral limestone, being porous, is lighter than it looks. His exact methods were never recorded.
- When
- Built 1923 – 1951
- Where
- Homestead, Florida, USA
- Witnesses
- Neighbours and visitors
- Status
- Mostly explained
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.