10 Biggest Sand Castles In The World

As the sun comes up every morning shining brightly, while some people take out their boats for a beautiful ride in the oceans, others go to the beach and make sandcastles with their friends! Made of sand, the sandcastles resemble a mini-castle and are usually designed by people of all ages on the beaches.

Right from the planning and construction of these mini-castles, it takes real talent to actually build a sandcastle. There are so many minute details that go into the designing of these sandcastles. However, to be able to build a perfect sandcastle, especially for professional purposes, it is very important for the sand to be of the perfect quality.

Many believe that building a sandcastle involves the use of science. There is actually a course that you can take to study and understand the nature of sand and how and why it holds up together!

This study is all the more important to perhaps boast all that knowledge before our friends and family and create tall, beautiful sand sculptures!

10. Disney Sandcastles

Location: Belgium
Height: 30 feet

The Disney sand sculpture festival is considered to be one-of-its-kind in Belgium. Huge sculptures of characters from Disney, Pixar, MArvel and Star Wars can be seen here during the mega festival. People of all ages throng up this place where sculptures as big as 30 feet dot the entire coastline.

The visitors here gather up to take pictures with their favourite characters like Bambi, Yoda, Mickey and Minnie, Anna and Elsa, Cinderella among many others. However, to be able to create such magical figures from sand, huge quantities of the perfect sand are imported to the beach.

It is believed that as many as 240 trucks come into the Disney Sand festival and this sand is used to build huge sculptures. Not only that, but over 40 professional artists from 12 countries come here every year to create these sculptures that everyone loves and adores. To create these magical figures, these artists work day and night and in the end, everyone loves all this work.

The Disney sand sculpture festival starts from June 23 and ends on September 9 each year.

9. Ed Jarrett Sandcastle

Height: 31 feet
Location: Maine

Breaking the Guinness World Record previously held by Finland, this man named Ed Jarrett built a huge sandcastle that measured a whopping 29 feet and three inches tall!

Built in 2003, Ed created this sandcastle by using just sand and water. However, again in 2007, he ended up breaking his own record and built another sandcastle that measured 31 feet and six inches tall. The name of this sandcastle came to be known as ‘Castle to the Sun,’ and in the next two months that followed, more than 1,000 people volunteered to help Ed build his castle!

By building this huge sand sculpture, Ed raised a massive $100,000 for charity. However, still not satisfied with his design, Ed decided to build another sculpture and raise money for charity. Finally in 2011, he finished making the biggest sand sculpture he had ever made which stood at 37 feet and 10 inches tall. For this sand sculpture, Ed even received a Guinness World Record.

8. Myrtle Beach Pavilion

Height: 32 feet
Location: Myrtle Beach, USA

The Myrtle Beach sandcastle was built during the Myrtle Beach Sun Fun Festival in 2006. The castle sits on the Myrtle Beach Pavilion Amusement Park.

32 feet high, this sandcastle had a massive 60 foot base. This was sponsored by Best Western Canada and sand artists used 2 million pounds of sand to build this massive sand structure.

The team that built this incredible masterpiece is aptly named San-Tastic! Although this was not their first sandcastle, it was their largest ever built. The castle features two dozen spiers and is guarded by a pair of gargoyles. This sandcastle is as tall as a three-storey building.

7. Niteroi Sandcastle

Height: 39 feet
Location: Brazil

This huge 39 feet tall sand sculpture was built by an American artist Rusty Croft in 2014. During that time, his sandcastle was the biggest sand sculpture in the world! This American artist built this giant sand sculpture in Brazil and it took almost 20 trucks of sand and a week for him to build it.

Although Rusty made this sandcastle using material that could easily bear the harsh winds and weather, it was smashed to the ground after the Guinness Book recorded its height. The sculpture had such enormous detail to attention and had all the scenes of tourists and holiday-makers enjoying their time on the beaches.

Rusty is very fond of building sand sculptures all around the world but this particular one was created with the help of two American companies, who were looking to promote their brands in Brazil.

Today Rusty is a co-owner of a California-based Sand Guys Company, which is hired to create sand sculptures for Yahoo!, Google, Facebook and other companies.

6. Virginia Key Florida

Height: 45 feet
Location: Florida

The above-mentioned Brazilian record was broken in Miami for being the tallest sand sculpture in the world. This world record was attempted to mark the inaugural service of Turkish Airlines from Miami to Istanbul.

Standing tall at a height of 45 feet and 10.25 inches, this sculpture was measured by the Guinness representatives at the Virginia Beach in Miami. This sand sculpture has a glimpse of the seven wonders of the world and more than 1,800 tonnes of sand was brought in to construct this mega structure.

Before this 45 inches tall sand sculpture won the award for being the tallest, this record had been achieved by Brazil’s Rio de Janeiro, who had constructed a sandcastle measuring 41 inches tall. As many as 12 artists had worked on this sculpture and the head of the team was Ted Siebert, the 7-times record holder for constructing huge sandcastles!

5. South Padre Sandcastle

Height: 45 feet
Location: Texas

Believe it or not, but South Padre Island is considered to be the sandcastle capital of the world. Howver, the Island is yet to receive this status officially due to the lack of fine quality sand.

This sandcastle in Texas is one of the largest outdoor sandcastles in the region and is a huge tourist attraction in the USA. This structure has been made out of river sand and weighs 150 tons! While the first half of this giant sculpture was finished in 2013, the second half was completed two years later in 2015 by an artist named Andy Hancock.

4. Oss Sandcastle

Height: 45 feet
Location: Oss, Netherlands

This is a completely different kind of sand sculpture in Oss, Netherlands. Deep inside this massive sand sculpture rests a room that has been made of sand completely. Every year, thousands of curious visitors throng this place just to spend a night in one of the most exciting sand sculptures.

Drawing inspiration from the ice hotels in Finland and Sweden, this sandcastle has been made out of sand and wood combined. It gives the visitors a very unique experience of sleeping in a sandcastle! The entire structure has been made of thin walls that are covered up with layers of sand. Despite what many would think, this place provides all the basic necessities like water, electricity and even has windows and beautiful carvings on the walls.

3. Puri Sandcastle

Height: 48 feet
Location: India

Portraying world peace, this huge sandcastle stands tall at 48 feet and has been built by Sudarshan Pattnaik in India. This sandcastle was built in 2017 and had doves and a massive picture of Mahatma Gandhi displayed over it.

After checking for all the Guniess Record criteria, Sudarshan Pattnaik was presented with the world record award. It took this man 9 days to complete the sandcastle along with help from 45 students.

2. Duisburg Sandcastle

Height: 50.8 feet
Location: Germany

Standing tall at 50.8 feet, this sand sculpture was built by an international team of sand sculptures in Germany in 2017. 3,860 tonnes of sand was used to create this mega structure and it took almost 3 weeks to build. Designers from 10 countries came together and worked on this structure, each portraying a glimpse of their country.

By building this huge castle, Germany dethroned India from the title it had won back in February. This sandcastle was kept standing for a few months and during this period of time, as many as 180,000 people visited the place to catch a glimpse.

1. Binz Sandcastle

Height: 57.94 feet
Location: Binz

The Binz sandcastle is the biggest sandcastle in the world. The sculptors started with a base that measured 57 feet and used 3,860 US tons of sand.

A team of artists worked on completing this sandcastle. In the end, this mega structure stood tall at 57.94 feet in the German resort of Binz on the Baltic Sea island of Rügen. By doing so, it broke the previous world record for the highest sandcastle of 16.68 meters.

The sandcastle competition has been an annual feature in Binz since 2010. Each year, tourists flock to see the creative sand sculptures here. This is a German town that is known for its beaches. However, the sand required to build the sculptures is always imported from the Netherlands as the sand from that place is quite easy to sculpt.

With incredible attention to detail, the Binz sandcastle resembles a “Game of Thrones” city. Several sand artists came together and worked on this mega sandcastle for days. In the end, the organizer Thomas van Dungen was awarded a Guinness World Record certificate in recognition of the achievement.