Magical Floating Water Taps Around The World

Update June 1,2020
As Google have closed Panoramio, Picassa Web, Google Plus and old Google Earth Community, several images in this post went missing and many links went dead.

I have therefore created a fresh post "Magical Floating Water Taps Around The World - Updated" wherein I have corrected all the dead links and have replaced missing pictures with new pictures. Please ignore this post and visit the newly created post.

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Magical Floating Water Taps are Public Art/Fountains which appear to be hanging freely in the air, have no apparent plumbing, yet deliver a constant stream of water. Such giant taps have been installed in several locations around the World.

It is not known who was the designer of such taps and which one of these was originally created. However one of my readers (Charles Lord) has informed me that;

these are based on a ca 1960 in-home decoration but I don't know who the original artist was. ...... You can see one in the Jack Lemmon movie "The Apartment" (1960)

Based on Charles' comments I searched on WWW and found that desk top models for home decoration/amusement purpose are readily available in the market and similar magical taps have also been installed indoors in lobbies of hotels and other buildings.

In this collection I am including only the large ones which are permanent and have been generally installed outdoors. With my own research on the Internet, feedback from my readers and help from my friends of Google Earth Community, I have found following magical taps so far (Listed in Random order);

1. Aqualand, Puerto de Santa María, Spain
2. Pintasilgos Park, Olivenza, Spain
3. Santa Galdana, Menorca, Spain
4. Ieper (Ypres), Belgium
5. Aqualand, Costa Adeje, Tenerife, Canary Islands
6. Swiss Science Center, Technorama Park, Winterthur, Switzerland
7. Visitor Centre, Doornpanne, Koksijde, Belgium
8. Law Garden Cross Road, Ahmedabad, India
9. The Illusion Farm (Farma Iluzji) Amusement Park, Mościska, Gmina Trojanów, Poland
10. A Maze 'N Things, Cowes, Victoria, Australia
11. Xel-há Park, Solidaridad, Mexico
12. Cafe Penguin, Lazarevskoye, Sochi, Russia
13. Särkänniemi Adventure Park, Tampere, Finland
14. Dubai Miracle Garden, Dubai
15. Blackpool Pleasure Beach, Blackpool, England

Some of the temporary installations which have not been placemarked.

1. Hampton Court Palace Flower Show - 2010, London
2. Rock county fairground Janesville, WI, USA
3. Aquafest, Grand Bend, ON, USA

Given below are images and locations of these magical taps;

Aqualand, Puerto de Santa María, Spain

Image from Wikimedia Commons is by emijrp

View location in Google Maps and Street View

Pintasilgos Park, Olivenza, Spain

Image from Flickr is by Jesu d´Alange

View location in Google Maps and Street View (Visible in Nov. 2009 Street View imagery).

Santa Galdana, Menorca, Spain

Image from Flickr is by mira66

Image from Flickr is by fender5

View location in Google Maps and Street View

Ieper (Ypres), Belgium

Image from Panoramio is by JeanMarc Gfp

View location in Google Maps and Street View

Aqualand, Costa Adeje, Tenerife, Canary Islands

Image from Panoramio is by arsenalfan

View location in Google Maps and Street View

Swiss Science Center, Technorama Park, Winterthur, Switzerland

Image from Flickr is by Bill Liao

View location in Google Maps

Visitor Centre, Doornpanne, Koksijde, Belgium

Image from Panoramio is by Guy De Pauw

View location in Google Maps and Street View

Law Garden Cross Road, Ahmadabad, India

Image from Panoramio is by Brijesh Patel

This photograph was taken by Akbar Akhtar (Please see Credits).

View location in Google Maps

The Illusion Farm (Farma Iluzji) Amusement Park, Mościska, Gmina Trojanów, Poland

Image from Panoramio is by Bombee

View location in Google Maps

A Maze 'N Things, Cowes, Victoria, Australia

Image from Panoramio is by emo73

A remarkable feature of this magical floating water tap is that the building beneath the tap is part of the theme. A closer look shows flooded building with chairs afloat and water pouring out of the drain and window. (Click on the image for larger view.)

View location in Google Maps and Street View

Xel-há Park, Solidaridad, Mexico

Image from Panoramio is by Ricardo Erreguín

A clearer view can be seen in this Flickr image.

View location in Google Maps and Street View

Cafe Penguin, Lazarevskoye, Sochi, Russia

Image from Panoramio is by Anton Gorbachov

View location in Google Maps

Särkänniemi Adventure Park, Tampere, Finland

Image from Panoramio is by Gunta Brencēna

View location in Google Maps

Dubai Miracle Garden, Dubai

Image from Flickr is by nthy ramanujam

View location in Google Maps

Blackpool Pleasure Beach, Blackpool, England

Image from Flickr is by John Dalkin

View location in Google Maps (Exact location couldn't be ascertained.)

Hampton Court Palace, London
Installed temporarily during 2010 Flower Show as a part of "A Matter of Urgency" campaign to create awareness of the over-40 age group who have overactive bladder but are embarrassed to talk to their doctor about the problem. (Source)

Image from Flickr is by tiny_packages

Main Beach, Grand Bend, ON, Canada
Installed temporarily during Aquafest - 2010

Image source: Aquafest 2010 Photo Gallery

Another fine image can be seen in Flickr.

Rock County Fairground, Janesville, WI, USA
Installed temporarily.

Image from Flickr is by Todd Klassy

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Try to guess how these magical floating water taps work else click here to see the explanation.

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View all locations in Google Earth: Download kmz file.

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Credits:

1. I had seen one such floating water tap in a post titled (Water Power) made by Late 'Danescombe' in Fun and Games section of Google Earth Community and curiosity led me to find some other taps.
   Danes (Dave in real life), was a master gamer, moderator and friend of the entire Google Earth Community (GEC). RIP Danes. You are gone but your great posts will forever remain a source of information for all us.
2. Chris Davis and Dave Spracklen who informed me about the Floating Water tap at Aqualand, Costa Adeje, Tenerife, Canary Islands.
3. Hazel Caplan for helping me find Danes post and also for informing me about Hampton Court Floating Water tap.
4. Kre Nek for locating the Floating Water tap at Winterthur, Switzerland.
5. Akbar Akhtar, who on my request went out in blazing sun to take photograph of the Magical Tap at Ahmadabad.
6. Bridgeplayer deserves special mention and thanks. He not only informed me about the Magical Taps at Koksijde, Belgium; Ahmedabad, India; Cowes, Australia; Xel-há, Mexico; Sochi, Russia and Tampere, Finland, but also took pains to find the locations and search for relevant photographs for use in this post.

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Note: Images of some of these Magical Taps have been posted on several blogs. However this post is different from others as I have tried to pin-point the actual location and placemark it. The locations of temporarily installed Magical Taps have not been placemarked.

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