Coral Castle

One man's coral-rock garden in Homestead, carved alone between 1923 and 1951, with a perfectly balanced nine-ton gate.

Checked November 2026

For lovers of roadside oddities and anyone pairing it with a Homestead or Everglades day. Adults pay $25 for a film and one guided walk, and the drive from Miami is long.

Sweet Sixteen

The story starts with a broken engagement. Edward Leedskalnin, a Latvian immigrant, lost the girl he called his Sweet Sixteen and spent 1923 to 1951 cutting and moving limestone blocks by himself, mostly at night and in secret, with basic tools. He claimed to have found the secrets of the ancient Egyptians and wrote about magnetic currents. Some of the blocks weigh several tons, and how he moved them is still the question.

The nine-ton gate

The gate is the piece everyone asks about: nine tons of stone balanced so well that it became the castle's signature. Every ticket includes a 30-minute documentary and a guided public tour, which is where the theories about his methods get aired. Group tours and school field trips are booked separately. There is a café and a gift shop on site for the wait between tours.

Tickets at the gift shop

Admission is $25 for adults, $10 for children 5 to 12 and free for kids 4 and under, paid at the gift shop when you arrive. Google lists it open 9 am to 8 pm daily. The site shows the last tour at 7 pm with gates closing at 7:30, but also an earlier schedule ending at 7 pm, so call (305) 248-6345 before driving down. It rates 4.4 from about 4,600 Google reviews.

Questions people ask