The universe as we know it—stretching about 93 billion light years across—has been squeezed into a 55-acre lot in the Scottish countryside.
Land artist Charles Jencks transformed an old opencast coal mine in southern Scotland into the universe—galaxies, blackholes, star clusters, and all. The 1-million-pound ($1.42-million) commission came from the Duke of Buccleuch in 2005.
In the so-called Crawick Multiverse, towering mounds of Earth represent the spiral galaxies of Andromeda and our Milky Way. These galaxies are moving toward each other right now and are expected to meet in some 4 billion years.
“The galaxy mounds represent this ‘cosmic ballet’ of the two galaxies coming together and stripping one another into long lines of stars and planets,” the Crawick Multiverse website reads.
The Andromeda and Milky Way spiral galaxies represented in the Crawick Multiverse, near Crawick, Scotland. Giant boulders on top represent cosmological phenomena, such as black holes. (Charles Jencks/Crawick Artland Trust)
“We have to interpret the things that are out of scale in a smaller scale,” Jencks said in a video produced by the Garden Museum.
The website describes the multiverse: “The Multiverse is a corkscrew path constructed mostly from mudstone composed of black and white layers. It represents the whole ensemble of universes, and the stones are carved with lines representing the different types of universe and their different fates.”
The multiverse represented in the Crawick Multiverse, near Crawick, Scotland. The stones are carved to represent the different types of universes and their different fates. (Charles Jencks/Crawick Artland Trust)
The supercluster of galaxies to which the Milky Way belongs, represented in the Crawick Multiverse. The patterns represent the forming of the universe and its place within the cosmos. (Charles Jencks/Crawick Artland Trust)
The view from Andromeda, in the Crawick Multiverse. (Charles Jencks/Crawick Artland Trust)
The view from the center of the Milky Way in the Crawick Multiverse. (Charles Jencks/Crawick Artland Trust)
The Sun Amphitheatre at the heart of the Crawick Multiverse, featuring two glittering lagoons and enough space for 5,000 people. (Charles Jencks/Crawick Artland Trust)
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