How a Pyramid Is Built. Ball’s Pyramid.

Ball’s Pyramid. Photo Miroslav Bobek

We now have a 1:200 scale model of Ball's Pyramid in Prague Zoo. It is 5.5 meters long and 2.81 meters high, and the monstrosity of this rock is well illustrated by the ship next to the model with two figures on it. These measure only 9 millimetres.

Ball’s Pyramid is located about eight hundred kilometres northeast from Australian Sydney and 23 kilometres from the Lord Howe Island. Lord Howe Island as well as Ball’s Pyramid were discovered by Royal Navy Lieutenant Henry Lidgbird Ball, the commander of the vessel Supply, and while he named the amiable island after the First Lord of the Admiralty, his own name was given to this inhospitable and inaccessible rock.

Of course, we have the model of Ball’s Pyramid in Prague Zoo for a reason. It is here due to the unique Lord Howe Island stick insect, for which we have recently built a breeding facility.

This giant stick insect, called also a “tree” or “land lobster”, formerly lived on the Lord Howe Island. However, they became eradicated there by introduced rats more than one hundred years ago and the Lord Howe Island stick insect was therefore considered definitively lost. But in 1964 two crazy Australians, Rick Higgins a Dave Roots, made their first attempt to conquer the top of Ball’s Pyramid, and although they didn’t reach it, they entered history. Dave Roots took a picture of Lord Howe Island stick insect on Ball’s Pyramid. Although it was dead, and the picture was not taken intentionally, still it was an amazing discovery. (By the way, since no one dared to reach the coast of the Ball’s Pyramid at that time, Higgins and Roots swam to it with bags full of climbing equipment through a sea full of sharks.)ný objev. (Mimochodem, protože tehdy se nikdo neodvažoval přirazit lodí přímo u Ballovy pyramidy, Higgins a Roots k ní i s vaky nacpanými horolezeckým vybavením plavali mořem plným žraloků.)

Finishing the Ball’s Pyramid model at Prague Zoo. Photo Miroslav Bobek

The production of the Ball’s Pyramid model, which is part of the story of the Lord Howe Island stick insect we are telling, was quite demanding. Because we wanted the model to be as accurate as possible, we needed spatial data of the Ball’s Pyramid. Martin Kýhos and Barbora Kořínková from the Czech Geological Survey helped to provide them; specifically, these were data from 2023 taken with LiDAR technology as part of oceanographic research. Based on this, the three-dimensional model of the Ball’s Pyramid was printed and gradually assembled from 472 parts by the PRUSA Research team led by 3D printing specialist Zdeněk Černý.

And now at Prague Zoo you can learn about the remarkable story of the Lord Howe Island stick insect and let your imagination run wild at the model of Ball's Pyramid...

Model of Ball's Pyramid at Prague Zoo. Photo Miroslav Bobek