To celebrate the 40th anniversary of His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said’s accession to the throne of Oman, his subjects commissioned the world’s largest marble mosaic.

The people of Oman consider Sultan Qaboos bin Said is considered responsible for the kingdom’s prosperity, so they decided to honor the anniversary of his rule by making a unique mosaic portrait. Measuring a staggering 8.30 meters in length and 5.30 meters in width, the spectacular masterpiece depicts the sultan in a position that best captures His Majesty’s humbleness. As the sultan rarely makes public appearances, the 15 artists who worked on the project had only a photograph, taken by his private photographer, to work with.

Apart from its size, the world’s largest marble mosaic impresses through the fact that it’s made up of 128,274 individual marble pieces, using 90 natural shades of marble mined from the mountains and sea beds of Oman. Blocks of marble were meticulously chosen and mined exclusively for the project.

The team of 15 artists from the UK and Bahrain spent around 120 days carefully placing each tile in the intricate mosaic, working an exhausting 12 hours a day. The face of the sultan is incredibly detailed, and his mustache and beard are made from the sultan’s favorite stone, brought all the way from Italy. The face alone took the artists 40 days to complete.

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Janet Esteves has proved to the whole world that she is the biggest Mickey Mouse fan, by putting together the world’s largest collection of Mickey Mouse memorabilia.

According to the Guinness Book of Records, Janet has turned her home into a virtual museum dedicated to Disney’s adorable character, featuring well over 2,500 items. She has everything from Mickey Mouse plush toys, snow globes, keychains and , all carefully organized and put on display around the house.

Janet Esteves first started collecting Mickey Mouse stuff in the early ’70s, when she and her husband visited Disneyland, on their honeymoon. She bought her first Mickey Mouse toys that time, but the collection really blossomed when her daughter was born, in 1978. She kept buying new Mickey stuff for her, until she realized she had made a goal of collecting memorabilia. Now, Janet has grandchildren, and they love Mickey Mouse too, so the collection keeps growing with each passing day.

As of December 2008, Janet Esteves’ impressive collection featured 2,760 different Mickey Mouse items, and it’s just going to get bigger.

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Saimir Strati, the well-known Albanian master of mosaics has created yet another masterpiece, a giant mosaic made of 300,000 industrial screws.

Strati, who already holds four Guinness records for various mosaics, has just applied for a fifth one, the world’s largest mosaic made with industrial screws. His latest artwork measures 490 cm by 240 cm and features a portrait of Greek poet Homer in the middle of a giant banknote, entitled “currency of the soul”. The Albanian artist who has previously created impressive mosaics out of nails, bottle corks and paintbrushes, has dedicated his latest masterpiece to his fellow art creators from Tirana, Albania.

Saimir Strati has spent two weeks creating his unusual banknote mosaic, using 300,000 industrial screws.

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Known as the Angolan Jaw of Awe, 20-year-old Francisco Domingo Joaquim has earned the title of “world’s widest mouth”.

Francisco, known as Chiquinho, had become an Internet sensation about two years ago, when videos of his incredible mouth stunts became viral on Youtube, but scouts of the Guinness Book of Records just recently managed to track hm down, in his Angola hometown. His jaw-dropping tricks have been viewed thousands of times, earning Francisco quite a reputation as the man with the world’s largest mouth.

To prove there is nothing false about his reputation, Francisco participated in the Italian competition known as “Big Mouth”, where contestants literally put their jaws to the test. They put all kinds of strange things in their mouths, including saucers, coffee cups, bottles, but none could beat Chiquinho’s coke can stunt. Francisco Domingo Joaquim  easily won the contest and thanks to his rubbery 16.99 cm wide mouth, he also became the man with the world’s largest mouth, according to the Guinness Book of Records.

Even more amazing is the fact that despite putting a Coke can in his mouth every day, and having never been to a dentist, his teeth are perfectly healthy.

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Stretching 3.95 kilometers, along Hanoi’s Red River, Ceramic Road has been declared the world’s longest ceramic mural, by the Guinness Book of Records.

Ceramic Road was a massive art project, initiated by artist Nguyen Thu Thuy, out of love and passion for Hanoi, and as a special way to celebrate the city’s 1000th anniversary. She first got the idea for a record-breaking ceramic mural in 2003, when she discovered ancient bricks and ceramics from the Ly dynasty, and other artifacts from the Tran dynasty, at an archeological site. She thought about the long history pf these findings, and decided a mural would best reflect the patterns of Vietnamese history.

Nguyen Thu Thuy reached out to fellow Vietnamese, as well as international artists for help in realizing her dream, and mural masters from all around the world started coming to Hanoi, to leave their mark on Ceramic Road. Some created contemporary design patterns, others used Vietnam’s history as inspiration, and even recreated famous paintings out of ceramic tiles. Nearly 100 artists, from countries like Mexico, Brazil, France, Denmark and many others participated in the creation of Ceramic Road.

The whole thing was completed on September 25, and on October 5, a representative of the Guinness Book of Records inspected Ceramic Road and acknowledged it as the longest mural in the world, spanning over 7,000 square meters. A window into Vietnam’s fascinating history, and an unbelievable artwork, Ceramic Road is set to become one of Vietnam’s most popular tourist attractions.

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Measuring a total of 22.43 meters in height, this detailed sand sculpture, created at the Zhoushan Sand Sculpture Festival, in China, has been acknowledged as the world’s tallest sand sculpture.

Officials from the Guinness Book of Records arrived in Zhoushan, on Wednesday, September 29, and after careful measurement, confirmed the sand masterpiece will be going into the record books. Depicting a Nigerian story of how a hummingbird managed to become the king of all animals, the 22.43 meter-tall sand sculpture was created by over 30 artists, during 75 days.

This year, the Zhoushan Sand Sculpture Festival gave sand artists the opportunity to express themselves on the theme of a trip to Africa.

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Tanys Pullin, a British chef, well versed in the art of cheese cakes, has broken the record for the world’s largest cheese sculpture.

46-year-old Tanys, who claims to be the Nigella Lawson of the cheese world, had to work her magic on a 600 kg piece of cheddar cheese, in a fridge. Although she enjoys working with cheese, and has been doing it for many years, she didn’t consider herself the best cheese sculptor, and was really nervous throughout the whole process. But after eight days of carving, she created a beautiful cheese crown, to mark the anniversary of the Queen’s Coronation.

Her ‘cheesy’ masterpiece weighs a little under 500 kg, which is way more than the previous record (290 kg). Tanys Pullin is now waiting for an official confirmation, from the Guinness Book of Records.

One might thing working with cheese isn’t very difficult, but cheddar is a very tricky art medium, and Tanys had to keep her cheese sculpture at the right temperature, constantly spray it with olive oil and wrap it up, after each session, to prevent cracking.

Photos by APEX via Daily Mail

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With various tattoos covering 95% of her body, Julia Gnuse has been acknowledged as the world’s most tattooed woman.

What started out as a desperate solution to cover up lesions, caused by a severe skin condition, turned into a true passion, that earned Julia Gnuse a spot in the Guinness Book of Records, for the most tattooed woman on Earth. Miss Gnuse, also known as the “Illustrated Lady” suffers from porphyria, a disease that causes the skin to blister when exposed to sunlight. When doctors told her the only medicine that could help her, could also induce blinding, she decided to turn to tattoos, to cover the blisters on her legs.

A plastic surgeon suggested she tattoo her body the same color as the blisters, but since that was so hard to reproduce, she settled for some really colorful tattoos. At first it was just her legs, than she moved up to her stomach, arms and back, and be fore she knew it she was hooked on ink. She just kept adding tattoos, ranging from cartoons, film characters to jungle scenes.

All of Julia Gnuse’s tattoos were done by the same artists.

Photos by Seth Wenig/AP via DailyMail

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Ted Reader, one of the most famous celebrity chefs in the world, has prepared a giant hamburger, in an attempt to put his name in the Guinness Book of Records.

The cooking process of the world’s biggest hamburger began at 4 am, on Thursday, when a giant beef patty was placed on a custom barbecue, to slow cook. The burger was unveiled at noon, and it caught the eye of dozens of Toronto passers-by. It was topped off with all the fixings you’d find in an average burger, including lettuce, tomatoes, pickles and barbecue sauce.

The 590 lbs-heavy burger was made with 300 pounds of meat, which makes it three times as heavy as the current record holder. Guinness is yet to acknowledge Ted Reader’s record, but it’s only a matter of time.

The making of the world’s biggest hamburger is part of a marketing tour to promote Ted Reader’s latest cook book, Napoleon’s Everyday Gourmet Burgers. It contains 110 different burger recipes.

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Mirco Della Vecchia, one of Italy’s most famous chocolatiers, has set a new world record for the largest chocolate sculpture.
Mister Della Vecchia was competing with himself, for the new record, as he was the current holder, for a chocolate sculpture of the Dolomiti Mountains, made in 2009. This time, Mirco decided to create a replica of the Dome of Milan, that would be even bigger than his last sweet masterpiece.

Together with a team of artists Mirco Della Vecchia spent many days sculpting the white chocolate Dome. All the left-over chocolate was wrapped in small packages and sold to passers-by, in Milan’s Carosello Shopping Mall, where the event took place. All the proceeds will be donated to children of Haiti foundations, to help rebuild their lives.

Miro Della Vecchia’s white chocolate Dome of Milan is 1.5 meters tall, 2.5 meters long and weighed and impressive 7,500 pounds.

via GuinnessWorldRecords

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A group of students from an Indian university celebrated their silver jubilee year, by setting a new world record for the longest letter.

The Brahmakumaris youth wing of Gujarat University found an original way to celebrate their silver jubilee year, the university’s diamond jubilee year and 600 years since the establishment of Ahmedabad city. They decided to organize an event where people could write their own letter to God.

In just 3 hours time, 2,800 people wrote down their feelings of gratitude for their happy lives and also asked the removal of poverty and protection from terrorism, corruption and other evils. The letter ended up being 2,841 feet long.

Participants were grateful for such an occasion to thank God for everything He helped them achieve in life, and organizers say this kind of event is perfect for people who want to learn how to write letters to God.

The previous record for the World’s Longest Letter was established by 2,000 of my Romanian countrymen who wrote a 1,358 feet-long letter for Santa Claus.

via WorldAmazingRecords

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The small town of Rivarolo, near Turin, Italy, hosted a Guinness World Records attempt for the longest chocolate bar in the world.

The record to beat was 6.98 meters, but A. Giordano, a local chocolatier, and his team outdid themselves and made an 11.57 meter-long chocolate bar. The event was sponsored by a Rivarolo shopping mall, who also brought in the Guinness representative to acknowledge the attempt.

As you can imagine, the crowd gathered during the event was treated to a delicious piece of chocolate delight.

via Guinness World Records

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The American card-stacking master has just beaten his own previous world record, by completing a model of the Venetian Macau hotel and casino, made completely out of playing cards.

Brian Berg, the man behind the famous key-card hotel, spent 44 days working on the amazing model, using a total of 218,792 playing cards. The fragile piece of architecture, which is now on display in the heart of Macau’s Cotai Strip, was Berg’s most challenging project yet.

The playing card model of the Venetian Macau weighs an impressive 272 Kg, is 35 feet long and 10 feet tall. The most impressive thing about Brian Berg’s masterpiece is it contains no glue of tape.

Photos via Daylife

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Huang Cheng-nan, a ceramic master from China, has created a series of beautiful ceramic bowls, thinner than China’s Jingdae bowl, the thinnest ceramic in the world, according to the Guinness Book of Records.

Huang Cheng-nan’s ceramic bowls range from 12 cm to 20 cm in diameter, weigh between 4 and 8 grams, and are between 0.15 and 0.18 mm thick. His works are so light they can easily be supported by a cobweb. These fragile works of art are on display in Taipei, and will soon be acknowledged as the thinnest ceramic bowls on Earth.

Photos by REUTERS via Daylife

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Three friends from Bellevue, Green Bay, managed to build Bigloo, the world’s biggest igloo, in just three months of work.

Paul Steckart and his friends were standing in his backyard, after a snowstorm, and one of them said “Why don’t we build an igloo?”. So they did some online research, employed the concept of the spiral, and managed to build a pretty sturdy igloo. That was last year. This year the Bellevue gang set off to build the biggest igloo in the world.

To complete Bigloo, Paul Steckart used all the snow in his backyard and started bringing in more building material, from his neighbors’ yards. He says it’s a fun way to spend time with friends, but building a monster igloo is more than just fun. It requires a lot of math and patience. The snow is mixed with water and thrown into a snowblower, before it’s stuck into plastic containers. Each Bigoo block weighs between 60 and 100 pounds, depending on the amount of water used.

The 17-feet 4-inch tall and 27 feet in diameter Bigloo is the largest igloo ever built, surpassing the previous record of 13 feet 8 inches tall and 25 feet 9 inches wide, dating from 2008, in Canada. All it needs now is official confirmation from a representative of the Guinness Book of Records.

Photos by Evan Siegle via GreenBayPressGazette

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