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Coral Castle

Photo: J. Miers (Wikivoyage user Jtesla16) / CC BY-SA 4.0 · source

🎡 Attractions

Coral Castle

Homestead, FL · The Everglades

About

One man, Edward Leedskalnin, spent 28 years quarrying and carving more than 1,100 tons of oolite limestone here by lamplight, alone, never letting anyone watch how he moved stones heavier than a car. The result is a stone garden of the strange and the tender: a nine-ton gate balanced so finely a child can swing it open with one hand, a Polaris telescope aimed at the North Star, a heart-shaped table, and a row of rocking chairs cut from solid rock. He built it for a fiancee who left him the night before their wedding, and the whole place still reads like a quiet argument that love is worth a lifetime of stone.

Highlights

Nine-ton revolving gate balanced to open with one handCarved single-handedly by Edward Leedskalnin over 28 yearsPolaris telescope, sundial, and heart-shaped stone tableMore than 1,100 tons of hand-quarried oolite limestone

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