The Shepherd's Truth

Ed Leedskalnin's Coral Castle

All those who lived near Ed testified that he usually did his building by himself and at night.  Some modern skeptics doubt that he built the Castle by himself, suggesting he had the help of at least a few neighbors.  But these skeptics fail to account for two items.  At the time Ed built his Castle (1920's-1940's), most private citizens did not have ready access to machinery capable of handling the huge weights involved.  On the one hand, such equipment was scarce and on the other hand, cost much more than Ed could afford.  Secondly, even if he had help lifting and moving the huge blocks, just how did he cut and shape them???  Oolitic limestone is a chemical calcite that has a hardness that will dull a steel saw blade fairly quickly.  It is also full of large irregular holes and has no clean cleavage characteristics, unlike the stones used to build Stonehenge and the Pyramids.  Yet, the stones of the surrounding wall, for instance, all have roughly square, 90 degree corners.  To make the mystery even more inscrutible, Ed carved the blocks out of the ground--not off the side of an already exposed cliff face!  The hole from which he excavated the wall blocks forms a shallow moat just next to one of the walls.  How did he cut these blocks out so neatly?

 

	The Polaris Telescope is 25 feet high and weighs an estimated 28 tons!  Wire crosshairs in the opening are perfectly centered on Polaris, the North Star.  The date, 1940, is carved on the side, indicating when Ed completed work on it.  The Crescent Moon in the foreground weighs 18 tons.
	It is said that every castle has a throne room; Ed's is no different!   On the east wall behind the throne is Ed's planetary display.  The huge Crescent is 20 feet tall and weighs over 23 tons.  The ringed planet is of course, Saturn.  To the left of Saturn is Mars.  Both the Mars and Saturn carvings are 18 feet high and weigh 18 tons each!
	In the back left corner, the Obelisk is 40 feet high and weighs an estimated 28.5 tons!  This is taller than the Great Upright at Stonehenge.  On the right, the cubicle structure with square holes is Ed's barbecue cooker.  The wall on the right is representative of most of the entire wall surrounding the Castle.  The blocks are each about 8 feet high and about 30 inches (2.5 feet) thick by about 6 feet wide.
	In the back, left half of the photo is the north wall which contains the largest single block in Coral Castle.  It is an estimated 29 tons in weight and about four feet thick by eight feet high.  To its right is the Mars and Saturn spheres shown above.  The two Crescent Moons each weigh about 18 tons, while the Full Moon (pond) weighs about 23 tons.  The Crescent Moon on the right is the same shown in the first photo above.

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