Replica Spanish Nao at the Edmonton Mall in Albert

[PirateKing]

I was up in Alberta, Canada recently on a business trip and stumbled pretty outstanding at the West Edmonton Mall (at 87th Avenue and 170th Street in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada).

A huge chunk of the mall is built with a general underwater theme complete with water park), complete with a fairly accurate and nearly life size Spanish Nao floating in a huge saltwater lake right in the middle of the place.

The ship floating above it was built at False Creek, in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, where it was hand carved and painted before being transported in flat-bed trucks across the Rocky Mountains to Edmonton. Apparently they do weddings, receptions and special functions and other stuff on it, but it was just empty while I was there. The lake is also pretty amazing, approximately 122m (400') long and up to 6m (20') deep long and filled with salt water and transported living coral.

Professionally speaking as a Nautical Archaeologist, I have to admit they really managed to get a lot more of the ship's design and rigging right than most touring replicas do.

(Just try to ignore the totally unrealistic figurehead, lol!)

Here are some links to more photos of the ship, in case you are interested:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/basel/5648824...in/set-1223537/

http://www.spunwithtears.com/050212.html

Enjoy,

The Pirate King

http://www.ThePirateKing.com

[Rumba Rue]

I have heard a lot over the years about that famous mall. I even had to write a comment about it on the thing.

That is just awesome, I hope someday to visit there!