Neptune

A 12-foot bronze sea god stands at Shelter Cove Harbour on Hilton Head Island, and his trident is meant to tell the time. According to Palmetto Dunes, local sculptor Wayne Edwards pitched the idea to the resort's owners, Greenwood Development Co., with a four-foot clay model: a large Neptune whose trident would work as the pointer of a sundial.

Palmetto Dunes says Edwards designed, sculpted and cast the figure over more than a year. It was cast in bronze at Johnson's Atelier in Princeton, New Jersey, and trucked to the island. The island's tourism site gives the weight as about one ton, while the International Sundial Registry gives 3,000 pounds. The figure stands on a circular base 26 feet across, and the tourism site says the trident's shadow falls across numbers around its edge to show the time. The registry says the trident is set at 32 degrees.