Nothing says Christmas quite like a nativity-inspired sand sculpture, right? But as well as this festive delight, it turns out there are a whole host of jaw-dropping sand sculptures that have been created all over the world, from the world’s tallest sandcastle to a recreation of the lost city of Atlantis. Intrigued? Check out the most incredible sandy creations of all time…

A hefty sprinkle of fairy tale magic lands on the shores of Ostend during the Disney Sand Magic Festival. The 2017 event on Belgium’s sandy coastline celebrated Disneyland Paris’ 25th Anniversary. Thirty-two expert sand sculptors used a total of 6,350 tonnes of sand to create 150 different sand sculptures over five weeks that depicted characters and scenes from the entertainment brand – pictured here is a reimagination of the French park's Disney castle.

Incredibly true-to-life and larger-than-life sand creations of characters from Pixar, Marvel and Star Wars films were also on display at the popular seaside event, such as Marvel's Doctor Strange. The artists use only sand and water to build their intricate and towering works of art.

Imperial palaces, lavish temples and formidable emperors formed part of the grandiose display at a sand festival held in Lednice, Czech Republic, in 2015. Pictured here is the Chinese Emperor Qin, the first sovereign emperor, who was the work of artist Michal Olšiak and his team. With a theme of ancient China, sand replicas of the Terracotta Army and the Forbidden City were also created.

The largest ancient palatial structure in the world was the bold choice for sand sculptor Zhang Weikang (pictured) who created some of the complex sand sculptures on display at the Yokohama Sand Art Exhibition held in 2014. Producer and sand sculptor Katsuhiko Chaen invited artists from around the world to recreate UNESCO World Heritage and other historic buildings in China, Japan and South Korea, including Beijing’s sprawling Forbidden City. 

See the 50 wonders of the world everyone should visit once

Surreal sand art takes over the sands of Busan in South Korea in May during its annual Haeundae Sand Festival which sees international artists get to work on Haeundae Beach. This ethereal sculpture is by the artist Zuo Zhang at the 2019 festival and is called the Scent of Music. The country’s second-largest city, Busan has glorious sandy beaches, perfect for making sandcastles and it's hoped the event can return in 2022.

Another eye-catching work of sand art at the 2019 Busan-based festival was this the Wonderful Wizard of Oz model. The detailed representation of the Emerald City and characters were the creation of five Korean artists.

An arresting nativity scene graced St Peter’s Square at the Vatican in 2018, made all the special by the fact it was made entirely from sand and water. It was the work of sand artist Rich Varano and three sculptors: Radovan Zivny, Susanne Ruseler and Ilya Filimontsev. The impressive team used 720 tonnes of sand sourced from Jesolo near Venice. The sculpture was 18 feet (5.5m) high and 52 feet (16m) wide.

Inspired by the Middle Eastern folktale collection, One Thousand and One Nights, this epic sand “village” was on display at the Remal International Festival in Kuwait in 2014. The magical world reportedly covered an area of 322,917 square feet (30,000sqm) and used more than 31,000 tonnes of sand. As well as grand domed palaces, minarets and traditional little villages, the sprawling artwork included fearsome snakes, a giant genie and gruesome skeletons. Lit up at the night, it was even more enchanting.

Love this? Follow our Facebook page for more travel inspiration

The capital of the UK’s sand art scene has to be the North Somerset seaside town of Weston-super-Mare, which started hosting an annual sand sculpture festival in 2006. Each year's event has a different theme with a public vote to decide the winning artwork. This was the 2017 winner, created by Edith van de Wetering under the theme Topsy Turvy. Titled Your Place Or Mine, the sand artwork shows two frogs with cities in their mouths and a tongue bridge connecting them. The festival has been postponed for the last two summers.

Around 5,000 tonnes of beach sand were used by 20 international artists who gathered at the Somerset beach to create sculptures based around a theme of Once Upon a Time at the 2014 Weston-super-Mare Sand Sculpture Festival. Pictured here is a giant Gulliver and the Lilliputians from Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels – it was one of the largest displays at the festival and was the work of Radovan Zivny from the Czech Republic.

 

This architectural masterpiece was part of the annual Belgium Sand Sculpture Festival in 2019, which takes place on the beach of Ostend. Working under a theme of “dreams”, international sand artists converged at the annual event to create fantasy worlds using sand and water alone. There were 150 works on the beach, which ranged from just over six feet (2m) to 20 feet (6m) in height.

Incredible creations such as this one can be seen at the annual Fulong International Sand Sculpture Art Festival in Taiwan, which is usually held each April. With a lovely long stretch of sugar-soft sand, Fulong Beach in north-east Taiwan is a prime spot for sandcastle enthusiasts – it was selected as the location for the open-air sand art gallery after the World Sand Sculpting Academy (WSSA) evaluated its sands as the most suitable place for sand sculpting on the island. 

The mesmerising Circles in the Sand have appeared at Face Rock Viewpoint in Bandon, Oregon since 2015, when artist Denny Dyke first began creating the labyrinths – or “dreamfields” as he calls them – at low tide. Along with a team of volunteers, he creates the intricate “draws” over a period of two hours. When the work is finished people are allowed in to follow the sandy pathways before the tide washes them away.

These are the strangest things to ever wash up on the beach

This epic scene of the legendary lost ancient city of Atlantis was carved by artists Sandis Kondis and Sue McGrew as part of an Under the Sea sand sculpture exhibition held in Frankston on the Mornington Peninsula in 2013. With its gorgeous sandy beach, foreshore boardwalk and pier, Frankston is prime sandcastle-building territory. Although, amateurs are unlikely to reach the heady heights of this imposing sand sculpture.

More competitive sand sculpting takes place at the Revere Beach National Sand Sculpting Festival which is held on the sands that overlook Massachusetts Bay. The world’s best sand sculptors converge at the beach, just north of Boston, during the annual event to compete for cash prizes. Pictured here is Benjamin Probanza’s Escuchando La Vida Y La Muerte (Listening to Life and Death) from the 2013 event. The artist from Acapulco, Mexico, won third prize for this thought-provoking piece that was painstakingly carved in an exact mirror image on the other side.

Filmmaker Danny Boyle’s Armistice beach memorial Pages of the Sea was one of the nationwide visual arts projects of remembrance commissioned for the centenary of Armistice Day (the end of the First World War) on 11 November 2018. The striking visual arts project saw large-scale portraits carved into the sand on 32 beaches around the country – pictured here is a portrait drawn on Downhill Beach, County Londonderry, Northern Ireland, of British Army staff nurse Rachel Ferguson who lost her life in Bordighera, Italy, in 1918. The portraits were chosen by Boyle to tell the stories of the ordinary people who gave their lives to the war effort.

Poignant portraits of soldiers from the First World War appeared on the beaches of Cornwall as part of the Armistice Day event too – pictured here is Lieutenant Richard Charles Graves-Sawle on Porthcurno Beach. He was in the Coldstream Guards and grew up in Cornwall. He died in 1914, aged 26, near Ypres. The short-lived artworks, which were designed by the sand artists collective Sand in Your Eyes, were created at low tide and only lasted until high tide, representing the fleeting nature of life.

The annual appearance of the Hiekkalinna, or Lappeenranta Sandcastle, is a highly anticipated event in the Finnish city on the banks of Lake Saimaa, the largest lake in Finland. This is the elaborate creation from 2014, which was created by a collective of sand artists. Since 2004, a giant castle has been carved at the end of Linnoitusniemi Cape from millions of kilos of sand with themes ranging from pirates and knights to historic events. The sandcastle area also has rides and family activities.

Pictured here is a detail from the 2019 sandcastle, which was created on Lappeenranta Harbour to celebrate the historic city’s 370th jubilee year. This year’s sandcastle will be on display until 29 August. Lappeenranta lies in the southeast of the country and is the closest city to Finland's border with Russia.

Nobody likes sandy bed sheets, but that was par for the course for anyone checking in to the world’s first sand hotel, which was built on Weymouth Beach in Dorset. Guests were able to book the room (which had one double and a single bed) for £10 per night for one week in the summer of 2008. It was part of a campaign by laterooms.com to highlight the appeal of a British seaside beach holiday and took 1,000 tonnes of sand to build.

The Dutch took the idea a few steps further in 2015 by building real-life sandcastle hotels complete with multiple rooms, Wi-Fi, windows and roofs. Constructed from tonnes of sand and reinforced with the help of some wood, the hotels opened in the cities of Oss in the province of Brabant and Sneek in Friesland, both of which host annual sand sculpture contests. Guests could stay inside the rooms, which were hidden inside huge and elaborate castle sculptures, for €150 euros (£130) per night. The temporary structures were inspired by Scandinavia’s Ice Hotels.

 

Mythical creatures, fearsome rulers and ancient architecture are just some of the amazing structures that have been on show at the Sand Sculpture Festival, which is usually held annually on Lara Beach in Antalya, Turkey. Pictured here is a model inspired by the Mughal Empire, created by sand artist Jan Zelinka in 2013.

Abandoned palaces rebuilt before your eyes

Sand art meets augmented reality technology at Sculpting Australia and Boneo Discovery Park’s ANIMALIA IN SAND exhibition in Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula. The park has 26 whopping sand sculptures, showing scenes from Graeme Base’s classic children’s illustrated book, Animalia, that were crafted by a range of international sand sculptors. Each piece comes to life as viewers use an app to experience a 3-D animal animation.

 

This detailed biblical scene portraying Jesus' last supper was created as part of Rügen’s 2020 Sand Sculpture Festival. It was one of many incredible motifs at the event that had a theme of the Bible. Noah’s Ark and Jesus carrying the cross were also part of the stirring sand sculpture display. The island’s annual festival usually attracts around 200,000 visitors every year.

Most years, serious sandcastle builders battle it out to build the tallest sandcastle in the world and make it into the Guinness Book of World Records. This mighty monument was constructed in Duisburg, in Germany's Rhineland region in 2017 and beat the previous world record by six feet (1.84m). The soaring Sandburg, which was commissioned by a local travel agency, took 19 artists three weeks to build and was made from 3,500 tonnes of sand. It was 55 feet (17m) high.

2019’s record-breaking creation was constructed in Binz on the German island of Rügen as part of its annual sand sculpture festival. It measured over 57 feet (17.66m) with a base diameter of around 85 feet (26m). Led by sand sculpting enthusiast Thomas van den Dungen, a team of 12 sculptors and eight technicians worked with over 1,000 tonnes of sand for three and a half weeks to build the mighty fortress at the 2019 Sandfest Rügen.

 

But the German’s world sandcastle domination was soon to crumble away. They were pipped to the post in 2021 by Dutch designer Wilfred Stijger who constructed the world's tallest sand sculpture in Blokhus, Denmark. Towering above the little seaside town at just over 69-feet (21.16m) high, the intricate castle is more than 10 feet (3m) taller than the 2019 record-breaker. Rather fittingly, at the top of the pyramid-like structure, which took 4,860 tonnes of sand to make, is a model of coronavirus wearing a crown, representing the virus’ control over our lives. 

See more of the world's statues and sculptures here

Every year on the golden beach of Las Canteras, Gran Canaria, talented sand artists work tirelessly to create a spectacular nativity scene. The tradition, which began in 2006, attracts visitors from all over the world, with the sand sculptures usually being completed in early December and staying up until early January. Pictured is the sculpture from 2012.

Although each year’s version is different, the installation always takes inspiration from the nativity and features its key figures – the baby Jesus, Virgin Mary, three kings, shepherds, villagers, sheep and donkeys. As well as this, the sculptures often incorporate nods to Gran Canaria’s landscape. Pictured here is 2018’s sculpture.

In 2021, the sand sculpture was as impressive as ever. It saw more than 10 artists of eight nationalities come together to carve out six distinct scenes. As well as recreating traditional nativity images, there were scenes referencing the recent eruption of the Cumbre Vieja volcano on the island.

It’s estimated that around 200,000 people have come to see the sculptures in the past 15 years, according to the installation’s organisers. What’s more, it all goes to a good cause: donations from visitors to the sand nativity are given to soup kitchens in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, and around €20,000 ($22.6k/£17k) is raised each year.