Grand Kugel (Science Museum)

Richmond, Virginia, United States

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Listed, not yet checked · Oct 2026

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The Mary Morton Parsons Earth Kugel is a 29-ton, nearly 9-foot granite sphere that floats on water pressure in front of the Science Museum of Virginia, Richmond. Guinness World Records lists it as the largest kugel, unveiled 8 January 2003.

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Grand Kugel (Science Museum)

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Site-level location · 37.5611° N, 77.4658° W

FIELD GUIDE

The story

In front of the Science Museum of Virginia, a 29-ton stone ball turns under the touch of a single hand.

The Mary Morton Parsons Earth Kugel is a nearly 9-foot sphere of granite that rests on a film of pressurised water rather than on any bearing. Guinness World Records gives its diameter as 2.653 metres (8 feet 8 inches) and its weight as 29 tons, and records it as unveiled on 8 January 2003 at the museum. The museum says that at the time it was installed it held the Guinness record for the world's largest floating ball sculpture.

The stone's origin is described in two ways. The museum says the granite is 300 million years old and was quarried at Le Sidobre, the largest granite plateau in Europe, adding that the same granite paves the walkways of the Champs-Élysées in Paris. A February 2003 article in Landscape Architect, written when the first sphere went in, said it was quarried in South Africa and shipped to a German manufacturer, where it was honed and engraved before installation in early 2003. Red Hogan Enterprises of Tampa, Florida, handled the sale and oversaw installation, according to that article.

How it works is simple to state. Water pumped from beneath the base supports the ball so that it rotates with little friction, and even a light touch can change its direction, according to Landscape Architect. The museum says the sphere floats on a 37,000-pound octagonal base and that one foot on the kugel scales to roughly 1,000 miles on Earth.

The museum's page lists it at the front of the building, free, and says visiting it does not require museum admission and that it is open to the public.

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A large granite globe in front of the museum. The museum's page lists the kugel as free to see, and says museum admission is not required.

ACCESS

In front of the Science Museum of Virginia, 2500 West Broad Street, Richmond, Virginia. The museum states that visiting the Earth Kugel does not require museum admission and that it is open to the public.

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0.9 km away

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