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Coral Castle (Edward Leedskalnin; Homestead, Florida)

I like it as well, too bad he took his secrets to the grave.
 
I find people's theories about this sort of thing really amusing sometimes... "Earth Energy Grin" and "Secrets of the Ancients"....
Of course my theory is no more stupendous (or stupid depending on your point of view).

Instead of using ancient building techniques or Earth Energy Nodes (and he found two of them, the original and the site to where he later moved the structure) I think that he was simply a powerful psychokinetic... but hey I read too many comic books...

Niles "Green With Envy" Calder
 
Great link! One of the most intriuging things I've read in awhile. I vow to visit the place someday. The part where the truck driver comes back to find the blocks loaded is very creepy. I wonder if there has been much study on the orientation of the various stones, especially the 25 chairs. Perhaps sitting in them in the proper order will cause one to become enlightened? Perhaps the secrets of the castle are hidden within the castle?
 
It's a great place, kinda freaky - well worth a vist if your ever in the area!
 
I found this subject facinating and intruiging. It's not surprising that we don't know how and why the ancients built their monuments but here is a mystery on our doorsteps. This happened in living memory and if anything we have even less idea how Coral Castle was built than we have about the pyramids.

What ever we think about the 'energy grid' theory we have to admit that there is no clear mundane explanation for this act of creation. We simply have no clue as to how he did it and no idea why. How often can we say that of anything?

If there was a seven wonders of weirdness I would nominate Coral Castle for one of those precious accolades.

Cujo
 
I'm sure everybody here knows about Florida's Coral Castle and how the size and weight of the slabs would be impossible for a single man to use in the kind of meticulous megalithic construction he did.

But what I want to know is, are there any architects out there who find it remarkable that a single man built this monument?

Here's a link to the uninitiated:

coralcastle.com/home.asp
This version of the link is obsolete. The current URL is:


https://coralcastle.com
 
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Okey dokey, but...

Pullys certainly could have been used, but the thing is, the coral weighs so much that heavy machinery can barely budge it, so I can't figure out where pulls would have been too much help compared to the weight of the blocks.

Way back in the early 80's there was a version of Ripley's Believe it or Not that Jack Palance hosted where they used a large crane to attempt to move a block of the same weight as the wall blocks and the crane could barely move it even a little bit.

So I was hoping that some of the arcitecturally inclined my be able to say if, given the size and weight of the blocks used, could pulleys or non-mechanical means have been used? Does it seem an arcitectural marvel?
 
There doesn't seem to be much mystery about it - on the Pictures page ( http://www.coralcastle.com/Pictures.asp ) there are 5 photos showing exactly how he worked. (Click on them to enlarge.)

He had a large wooden tripod supporting what is described as a conventional pulley system. Some of the pics seem to suggest that at least part of it used chain, which may indicate a differential pulley - make one yourself! or

look at this.

If he pulled with half his weight (ie, about 50 lb.wt.), such a machine could multiply the lifting force tens or hundreds of times, especially if daisy chained with a block and tackle.

Differential pullies are often used in garages and machine shops for lifting heavy gear.
 
Tanks

Wow, that sorts blows all the wind out of the "impossibility" portion of the feat, but it's still a very impressive one person accomplishment!
 
"but the thing is, the coral weighs so much that heavy machinery can barely budge it"

Like the Saturn V rocket. Scientests are still trying to figure out how they were moved to launching pads.

The walls in the castle are noted as weighing 13,000 pounds, 6 1/2 tons.

The Saturn V weighed over 527,000 pounds (unloaded, ie. no fuel) which is almost 264 tons. It is moved by heavy machinery.

"but the thing is, the coral weighs so much that heavy machinery can barely budge it"
You really have to think about what you are saying.

I have a hydraulic jack at home for which I paid $30. I can pick up 5 tons with it. I have a different jack, on wheels, which cost me $20, that will lift 2 1/2 tons, then I can drag/roll that weight by myself.
 
No, the guy who built it was a Latvian, he used his Latvian powers to build it by manipulating energy fields.

That or pullys.
 
I happen to know that he has made contact with a race of tiny underground people that regard him as their king due to his immense size and weird accent.

He and his army of underground "mole men" constructed it easily to to their disproportionate strength.



either that or he used pulley's *shrugs*
 
My theory

I always thought he used a high powered water gun to squirt them into place....:D

Or an army of trained millipedes...

Or a large pickle...:p
 
I had heard the "water lifting /pulley" theory on the art bell show some time ago; from a physics professor who had pictures of this contraption that was located in an inclosed area on the grounds.(you might find this in arts archives)He explained how it worked by water displacement etc...
 
Looking at the single existing photo of Edward Leedskalnin
at work building Coral Castle, you see a "mysterious" box at the top of the block and tackle. It seems to be a normal arrangement for lifting heavy loads, except for this box.

His "book" (which can be found in full through a Google search) states that he was using a "lost" principle of gravity/magnetism. He states that just as electricity and magnetism need a positive and a negative, so does gravity. The building feat itself is impressive, but he worked with such SPEED, it is hard to totally dismiss him.

Intriguing... but in the same book, he describes his ability to see either RNA or germ cells (I don't remember which)
by looking at a clear blue sky. Obviously he was seeing the common phenomenon of cells on the eye surface.

Your mileage may vary...
TVgeek
 
I came across this a couple years back but I'm new to these forums so I'll post this out here. How did he DO IT?? good stuff, have a skim!

He moved all these coral rocks to create the structures singlehandedly, and no-one knows to this day for sure how those enormous rocks could have been moved.

Coral Castle in Homestead, Florida, is one of the most amazing structures ever built. In terms of accomplishment, it’s been compared to Stonehenge, ancient Greek temples, and even the great pyramids of Egypt. It is amazing – some even say miraculous – because it was quarried, fashioned, transported, and constructed by one man: Edward Leedskalnin, a 5-ft. tall, 100-lb. Latvian immigrant.

Many men have single-handedly built their own homes, but Leedskalnin’s choice of building materials is what makes his undertaking so incredible. He used huge blocks of coral rock, some weighing as much as 30 tons, and somehow was able to move them and set them in place without assistance or the use of modern machinery. And therein lies the mystery. How did he do it?

It’s estimated that 1,000 tons of coral rock were used in construction of the walls and towers, and an additional 100 tons of it were carved into furniture and art objects:

Ed150.jpg


An obelisk he raised weighs 28 tons.
The wall surrounding Coral Castle stands 8 ft. tall and consists of large blocks each weighing several tons.
Large stone crescents are perched atop 20-ft.-high walls.
A 9-ton swinging gate that moves at the touch of a finger guards the eastern wall.
The largest rock on the property weighs an estimated 35 tons.
Some stones are twice the weight of the largest blocks in the Great Pyramid at Giza.
Leedskalnin on
Magnetic Current

Coral_Castle24.jpg


Ed Leedskalnin wrote several booklets which he sold to tourists as they marveled at his structure. One of them, called “Magnetic Current” is available to read online at the above link. In it he reveals the results of two years of experiments with magnets. Perhaps he reveals his secrets of levitation when he writes: “The real magnet is the substance that is circulating in the metal. Each particle in the substance is an individual magnet by itself, and both North and South Pole individual magnets. They are so small that they can pass through anything. In fact they can pass through metal easier than through the air. They are in constant motion, they are running one kind of magnets against the other kind, and if guided in the right channels they possess perpetual power.”

Working alone, Leedskalnin labored for 20 years – from 1920 to 1940 – to build the home he originally called “Rock Gate Park” in Florida City. The story goes that he built it after being jilted by his fiancée, who changed her mind about marrying him because he was too old and too poor. After wandering around the U.S. and Canada for several years, Leedskalnin settled in Florida City for health reasons; he had been diagnosed with tuberculosis. He began building his coral home in 1920. Then in 1936, when a planned new subdivision of homes threatened his privacy, Leedskalnin moved his entire home 10 miles to Homestead, where he completed it, and where it still stands as a tourist attraction.

How Leedskalnin managed this feat of engineering has remained a mystery all these years because, incredibly, no one saw him do it. A secretive man, Leedskalnin often worked at night by lantern light. And so there are no credible witnesses to how the small, frail man was able to move the huge blocks of rock. Even when he moved the entire structure to Homestead, neighbors saw the coral blocks being transported on a borrowed truck, but no one seems to know how Leedskalnin got them on and off the vehicle.

Lots of weird stories have been told and bizarre theories proposed to explain Coral Castle. And since no witness can dispute any of them, they are all worthy of consideration.
The Theories

One story says that some curious neighbors did see how Leedskalnin moved the stones. They say he placed his hands on the stone to be lifted... and sang. Somehow this levitated the great rocks.
According to an article in Fate magazine, “some teenagers spying on him one evening claimed they saw him ‘float coral blocks through the air like hydrogen balloons,’ but no one took them seriously.”
Frank Joseph, in the Fate magazine article, also writes, “Alternative science investigators suggest that Leedskalnin somehow learned the secret of the ‘world grid,’ an invisible pattern of energy lines surrounding the Earth which concentrates points of telluric power where they intersect. It was here, at one of these intersections of Earth energy, that he was supposedly able to move his prodigious stone blocks using the unseen power of our planet.” Yet that still does no explain how Leedskalnin was able to tap this power, and others cannot.

Entrance270.jpg


Coral Castle quotes J. Cathie, a captain flying with National Airways Corp. of New Zealand, as saying: “Measurements from the Coral Castle position to the zero-degree and 90-degree longitude lines, when they passed through the equator, also yielded harmonics related to light and gravity. The final check of the distance between Coral Castle and grid pole A in the north, dispelled any doubt about the site being in an ideal position to allow Leedskalnin to erect the huge blocks of coral with relative ease. Measurements from all major points gave the geometric harmonics necessary for the manipulation of anti-gravity.” Cathie also believes that this energy grid is also responsible for many UFO sightings.
In an article by called "The Coral Castle Mystery" in Atlantis Rising, author Christopher Dunn asserts: “What if there’s no such thing as gravity? And the natural forces we already know about are sufficient to explain the noted phenomena we have labeled as gravity? Perhaps Leedskalnin’s means of working with the Earth’s gravitational pull was nothing more complicated than devising a means by which the alignment of magnetic elements within his coral blocks was adjusted to face the streams of individual magnets he claims are issuing forth from the Earth with a like repelling pole.”
When he was personally asked how he managed the feat, Leedskalnin replied only that he understood the laws of weight and leverage. He is quoted as saying, “I have discovered the secrets of the pyramids. I have found out how the Egyptians and the ancient builders in Peru, Yucatan, and Asia, with only primitive tools, raised and set in place blocks of stone weighing many tons.”



According the The Enigma of Coral Castle, “Ed flatly disagreed with modern science, and claimed that the scientists were wrong, ‘that nature is simple.’ He believed all matter consisted of individual magnets, and it is the movement of these magnets within materials, and through space, that produce measurable phenomena, magnetism, and electricity. These concepts ‘involved the relationship of the Earth to celestial alignments.’ He claimed to see beads of light which he believed to be the physical presence of nature’s magnetism and life force, or what we term today, chi.”
Was Leedskalnin being deceptive when he talked about magnetism and electricity, trying to make his accomplishment more mystical and mysterious than it actually was? Had he merely found a very clever way to manipulate the great stones with levers and pulleys? We may never know the answer. Leedskalnin took his secrets with him to his grave in 1951... secrets that await to be rediscovered.

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Personally, I find it more inspiring to think Ed built it himself with the sweat of his brow. He was an eccentric character, to say the least, and his reasons for building it may never be known (I think his 'sweet sixteen' was just a romantic notion Ed thought would play well). But I admire him for lugging huge coral blocks weighing tons and building his hallucinogenic dream castle with his hands. I think the man was a true artist. :yeay:
 
In the video i saw, that 3 legged pully system was at least 30 feet tall or so, maybe more. It wasnt a small thing guys, that sucker was massive. Makes me think it could lift just about anything.
 
From a SI chappie:

The Mysterious Coral Castle: A Fanciful Myth

By Benjamin Radford

posted: 28 March 2006
07:44 am ET


About 30 miles south of Miami, Florida, in a town called Homestead, lies an unusual—some would say impossible—structure, composed of coral rock. Called the Coral Castle, it has a colorful past. It was the life's work of a reclusive Latvian immigrant named Edward Leedskalnin, who built the complex after being jilted by his sixteen-year-old sweetheart on their wedding day.

As a tribute to his love, Leedskalnin allegedly cut, quarried, and raised the castle, consisting of more than 1,000 tons of coral rock formed into furniture and large slabs. He began his work in 1920 and continued until his death in 1951.

Under any circumstances the castle is a remarkable feat, though how exactly the man did it has puzzled many, for he supposedly worked without assistance or the use of modern machinery.

Many sources suggest that the castle is scientifically inexplicable. One typical magazine article claimed, "The question that has perplexed engineers and scientists for decades is how such a tiny, uneducated man single-handedly built such a place." According to the castle's Web site, "Coral Castle has baffled scientists, engineers, and scholars since its opening in 1923."

The castle has been featured in dozens of magazines and books on the unexplained, as well as on television shows such as "In Search Of," "That's Incredible" and "Ripley's Believe It Or Not."

British rocker Billy Idol even wrote a hit song about Leedskalnin's story, "Sweet Sixteen."

Over the decades, many stories and wild theories have emerged about Leedskalnin and his castle. Some say he levitated the blocks with his mind, or by singing to the stones. Others suggest Leedskalnin had arcane knowledge of magnetism and so-called "earth energies." One author suggested that perhaps Leedskalnin found that "there's no such thing as gravity." Since science supposedly could not explain the feat, wild speculation took hold.

It's easy to claim the castle defies scientific explanation, but searches for the investigations made by perplexed and baffled scientists come up empty. Despite the information on their Web site, the Coral Castle information booth was unable to identify a single scientist or engineer who had specifically examined the castle. This puts the claim in a whole new light, since "hasn't explained" is clearly not the same as "can't explain."

There is one detail that virtually all agree on: since the reclusive Leedskalnin spent nearly thirty years working mostly at night and away from prying eyes, no one actually saw him move the coral. Since no one saw the blocks actually being moved, no one can state for certain that the task was accomplished by Leedskalnin alone. The claim that Leedskalnin didn't use modern (post-1920s) tools is obviously true, but the mistake is in assuming that modern tools are required to move the large blocks of coral.

Ultimately—and ironically—the solution may lie in Leedskalnin's own simple explanation: that he did it using principles of weight and leverage. "I have discovered the secrets of the pyramids," he said, employing the same methods used by ancient Egyptians. If Leedskalnin was being truthful, then the mystery is solved, for the methods by which the Egyptian pyramids could be constructed are well understood (see, for example, Mark Lehner's 1997 book The Complete Pyramids).

Photos exist of large tripods, pulleys, and winches at the Coral Castle site, and several sources (e.g., Wallace Wallington's Web site http://www.theforgottentechnology.com) demonstrate how massive weights can be moved by one or two people using simple physics. (The comparisons to Egypt's pyramids are a red herring; there are vast differences in weight, material, and complexity between the castle's coral slabs and the huge stone pyramids at Giza. Because coral is porous, large blocks appear heavier than they actually are.)

Many mystery mongers arrogantly assume that those living in earlier times (such as Leedskalnin, or the ancient Egyptians) were not clever or resourceful enough to possibly have created impressive engineering feats without extraterrestial aid or mysterious powers. This view betrays an ignorance of history and sadly underestimates human ingenuity. It seems likely that if scientists haven't explained the Coral Castle specifically, it's because there's little to "explain." The Coral Castle mystery seems to be simply a matter of poorly-informed people who reject a mundane reality in favor of a fanciful myth.

------------
Benjamin Radford is managing editor of Skeptical Inquirer magazine, and co-author of "Hoaxes, Myths, and Manias: Why We Need Critical Thinking."

www.livescience.com/history/060328_coral_castle.html
 
It's interesting that they talked about the weight of coral in compairison to pyramid stones. I remember an 80's Ripley's Believe It Or Not (hosted by the great Jack Palance) where they showed a modern crane barely budging a typical Coral Castle-sized piece of coral, it lifted it for about two seconds off the ground before it couldn't hold it aloft anymore. Now, it's possible they used an intentionally small crane, but it seemed pretty convincing at the time.
 
I read a piece on the CC written by mmm, Keely I think, that said some curious teenagers were doing some late night spying on him( because they thought he was sort of a strange nutter) and said that they were freaked out by him moving the stones as if they were floating like balloons held by a rope. But it was dark,and they were not close enough to see any real details, so they could have been mistaken.
Drunken teens are not always a reliable source anyway.
 
if a stone was propely balanced you could move it with a touch of the hand.r
 
I'm not sure which is the best forum to put this in, but since I personally visited the place I thought I'd put it here.

In Homestead, Florida, is a site called Coral Castle. It was built by a man named Ed Leedskalnin and if you're not already familiar with this you can Google it to find a lot of information on it. In short, this one man managed to carve huge blocks of bedrock out of the ground, carve it and move it around to create himself his own little "castle". He had a two story tower. The bottom floor of which was his laboratory and the second floor was his living quarters. He had a high stone fence around the area. He had all sorts of huge wonders inside the compound that he carved from the bedrock, including a bed, a rocking chair, a bath tub, a Florida shaped table, and a lot of other things. He had a swinging door that weighed 9 tons and was so finely balanced you could push it around with your fingers, which I've done myself.

My point in this post isn't specifically the Coral Castle. My point is WHAT was Ed Leedskalnin's secret? He claimed he knew how the Egyptian pyramids were built and it only involved a basic understanding of "weight and balance". He obviously knew something the rest of the world isn't privy to and he refused to share it. This is an occurrence in modern times and anyone can go there and see the results of his work. Could Ed's secret explain other famous mysteries like Stonehenge or the famous heads on Easter Island? Has anyone else wondered about this?
 
The article written by Benjamin Radford attempts to "debunk" any mystery behind what Ed did, but I don't think he was very successful at it. He prefers to believe it was all pulleys and levers and "human ingenuity", but if it was as simple as that why aren't there Coral Castles like there are Starbucks?

I've seen the theory put forth before about ley lines and "energy grid", but I can't put any credence in that at all. It's all based on fantasy or conjecture and NOT on any kind of empirical scientific evidence. If someone uses the word 'energy' in a scientific context he can generally explain what KIND of energy he's talking about, with a basic understanding of where that energy came from, where it's going, and how it's being harnessed. Nobody has ever explained what this mysterious energy from the energy grid is.

I saw that TV episode many years ago where they interviewed a truck driver who remembered Ed Leedskalnin loading a huge block of stone onto his flat bed truck for him. Ed refused to let the driver actually see him do it and insisted the driver turn his back. The driver attested to the fact that while his back was turned he heard a loud bang. He turned around and saw the huge block of stone sitting on his truck ready to be tied down for transit. There was no giant tripod and no block and tackle. There was just Ed, the truck and the stone. That in itself is a mystery.

At Coral Castle they have a little museum/gift shop set up. They have old photographs there that clearly show a huge tripod with heavy block and tackle. They DON'T show that equipment being used, however. The pictures may imply that because it was there it was there for the purpose of moving heavy stones. But if you think about it, a tripod could lift something straight up, but it can't move a heavy weight around very easily. Ed liked to experiment with things. Maybe he experimented with a tripod? Or maybe the tripod was his way of deflecting curiosity from what he was really doing? I'm just guessing.

I saw something in that other thread that sparked my interest. Ed supposedly said that like magnetism and electricity, gravity has a positive and negative to it. That's a strange thing to say and it requires some explanation.
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8BZ3VhX3YI
That video has lots of speculation about what he was talking about and how he did it and it's pretty interesting.
It gets WAY into mathematics and magnetism.
There is more about it in some of the other videos in the series.
 
That was an interesting video. The math wasn't too overwhelming at all, but they never really made any connection between their numerological showmanship and levitation. I looked at a couple of the subsequent videos in their series and finally turned it off when a guy was ranting about Hurricane Sandy wasn't really a hurricane but rather some evil conspiracy. I'd much prefer that if they have something to say about how Ed Leedskalnin did what he did they just come out and say it rather than to weave it through a series of longwinded videos.

I remember seeing that flywheel contraption in Ed's workshop. He had a lot of weird stuff in there. I'd be interested in getting to the meat of their revelation if they could just come out and say it without hours and hours of the other stuff.
 
It doesn't lay it all out, but it has a lot of interesting and curious info too so I give it a pass on that :p The dramatic music is a little much also .


Seems to suggest that he used magnets in a precise pattern perhaps combined with sounds to do it. I forget if it is in this video, but I have seen pictures of him with a large tripod with the magnet wheel at the bottom, and some unknown piece at the top, possibly a speaker but who knows. He might have set up a photo to throw people off of his secret for all I know :/


The correspondence between things at Coral Castle and the Masonic Temple was pretty interesting too. Whatever it is they are getting at seems to be represented in both places.
 
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