"Charybdis" an amazingly dynamic water sculpture by artist William Pye is installed in front of Seaham Hall hotel, Seaham, County Durham, UK.
The sculpture installed in 2000 is named after Greek mythological figure Charybdis, a water nymph (Naiad), daughter of Poseidon and Gaia who had angered Zeus and he turned her into a whirlpool shaped monster whose vortex swallowed up ships.
The sculpture is made of a huge transparent acrylic cylinder, wherein clear filtered high pressure water is pumped from the bottom, which combined with competing currents, generates a sustained air core vortex. Steps around the cylinder allow the spectators to view the vortex from above.
In words of the photographer Andrew Curtis - whose couple of images are included in this post;
"It is huge, has impressive energy and incredible beauty. The vortex dynamically swirls from the bottom of the container, and the whole surface rotates in a colossal whirlpool. You can climb up and look down inside. Its hard to resist the urge to drop something in to see where it would go but this is a select establishment and they might have CCTV. It would also upset the filtration system needed to keep the water clean. A static photo cannot do this thing justice and certainly gives no sense of the huge sound and energy that accompanies your visit. ....." (Source)
Image from Flickr is by julieboddy
Image copied from geograph.org.uk is by Andrew Curtis
Image copied from geograph.org.uk is by Andrew Curtis
Image from Flickr is by Chris Bewick
View location in Google Earth / Google Maps
Source of info: williampye.com and geograph.org.uk
Credits: I am thankful to the artist/sculptor William Pye for allowing me use of images from his website williampye.com.
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