Coral Castle Conundrum Trivia Quiz

Answer: A ten-acre tourist attraction

It is a ten-acre tourist attraction comparable to Stonehenge, though not an ancient temple. It is constructed entirely of enormous monoliths weighing many tons each, quarried and erected by one man. "One of the most amazing structures ever built", according to About.com.

Answer: Ed Leedskalnin

The entire walled ten-acres of gigantic monoliths was designed, quarried, engineered and constructed single-handedly, using only home-made tools made from spare parts.

Answer: Riga, Latvia

Edward Leedskalnin was born on August 10th, 1887. He died from malnutrition in 1951, at the age of 64, without revealing his secret.

Answer: 4th grade

Leedskalnin received only a fourth grade education and was almost completely self-taught.

Answer: Homestead, Florida

It is just south of Miami.

Answer: Florida City, Florida

In 1936, someone planned to build a subdivision near the Coral Castle. Driven by privacy, Leedskalnin bought 10 acres in Homestead and spent the next three years moving the Coral Castle there. No one, including his truck driver, ever saw him load or unload the massive monoliths to or from the 18-wheel flatbed truck.

Answer: Rock Gate Park

Leedskalnin changed the name when he moved his "park" to Homestead. He charged ten cents per person for entry and gave personal tours.

Answer: The secrets used to build the ancient pyramids

Of these four possible answers, the only one Leedskalnin claimed was true was that he utilized the same secrets used to build the ancient pyramids, and that anyone could learn them. Some may say that "we don't know" should be an answer, but it's not: it's merely an admission of ignorance. Ed Leedskalnin knew, because he did it. So unless one can prove him a liar, by using known techniques to duplicate his feats (no one ever has), he must be accepted at his word. That the secrets remain secrets doesn't invalidate his answer!

Carrol A. Lake, a colonel in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, stated that "Leedskalnin proved for all the world to see today that he knew the construction secrets of the ancients."

Answer: 28 years

Working alone by night so as never to be observed, Leedskalnin carved and erected the Coral Castle from the ground up, using home made tools created from spare parts. He claimed his "sixth sense" told him when he was being observed. It is documented that no one ever saw him quarry or erect a single monolith, so successful was he in maintaining his privacy.

Answer: True

Source for this piece of information: Christopher Dunn in "Atlantis Rising" and other sources.

Answer: An allusion to his discovery

Though some speculate "Sweet 16" refers to the fiancee who rejected him one day before their wedding (Agnes Scuffs), Leedskalnin never answered directly. When asked, he would look to the skies with a strange expression. Most researchers connect the "Sweet 16" to the Golden Mean (or Golden Section), represented by the Greek letter phi, a mysterious natural number that arises out of the basic structure of our cosmos.

It appears clearly and regularly in the realm of things that grow and unfold in steps, including living things.

The decimal representation of phi is 1.6180339887499.

Answer: Billy Idol

Idol wrote his hit song about the story of Leedskalnin's lost love, rather than "Sweet 16's" hidden reference to the builder's scientific discovery.

Answer: All of these

Much of the Coral Castle is precisely calibrated to celestial alignments, including a thirty ton telescope towering twenty-five feet above the complex, perfectly aligned to the North Star. He believed the movement of the individual magnets within materials and through space produce measurable phenomena, i.e., magnetism and electricity.

Answer: True

Leedskalnin somehow drilled an eight-foot longitudinal hole through a huge nine-ton stone door, precisely aligned with its center of gravity. He fitted the hole with a shaft resting on an automobile gear, then installed the massive door in an equally massive gate. It can be pushed open by a five-year old using one finger.

Answer: False

None has even been replicated; no one has managed to solve the mystery of how Leedskalnin single-handedly carved 30-ton stones (larger than those at Stonehenge or the Great Pyramid) from the ground and made them vertical, and smooth on all four sides.