Hello. If you've never heard of it, Coral Castle is a huge complex built in
the early part of the 20th century by Edward Leedskalnin. The blocks of
coral used in construction weigh many tons, yet he placed and stacked the
blocks like cord wood without any help from others. It's a fascinating
place.
Last summer I took my 2 children for a visit. We arrived at 9am and stayed
until closing. An entire day of exploration.
At about 2pm I was standing at a viewing post. These viewing posts are
scattered around the grounds so that visitors could position their box
cameras to take pictures, or so said the guides. So I was standing at one
of these posts and just kind of looking around from that vantage point. As
I was scanning the grounds, I remembered that Ed stood only about 5 foot
high. The post in front of me was just a bit shorter than that. I got a
feeling and scrunched down, trying to estimate where Ed's eye level would
be. This put my chin just about at the top of the post.
Then, for no real reason, I decided to pour some water from my water bottle
onto the top of the post. These posts have been finished off with a thin
coat of cement. The entire castle complex is made of coral. Ed didn't use
any cement during their construction. Yet he used a small bit of cement
here and there to finish off the viewing posts. Instantly, the top of the
post became a mirror! AND, the reflected image, from my chin/post position,
reflected a spot directly upon a wall about 30 feet away. Guess what? That
spot on the wall had a small 8" square of concrete veneer, too!
Excitedly, I had my daughter and son splash water upon this wall spot while
I returned to the post to refresh it's water mirror. Looking, I could see
something there. Not clearly but there was a second mirror effect!
I went over to the head guide and brought him over and showed him what I had
discovered. He looked, then scuttled over to the guide station and brought
the other guides over. All stood and watched as I demonstrated.
They all chattered in excitement!
The head guide said he had worked at the castle for years and had never seen
such a thing! He told me that whenever it rained, everyone ran for shelter
(the castle is mostly open-air and Florida is the lightning strike capital
of the world) and had never thought to explore the area while it was wet.
Perhaps this is pure conjecture but Ed placed his massive stones and
carvings with care. Is it possible that these secret water-mirrors point
towards something profound?
As a final note, my gut feeling is that there are also secret rooms or
cavities under the castle yet to be found. Ed enjoyed tunneling and there
are examples of this. With so much quarrying activity in the area, it's
easy to imagine that there are still secrets to be discovered there. Any
search engine about Coral Castle will give the reader a background into this
wonderful example of egyptian pyramid skills applied in the modern age.
Phillip W. Mark, Florida, USA
