By Igsaan Salie
There are sand castles and then there is Castle Fantastica on Camps Bay beach, probably the biggest sand castle yet built in the city.
Taking over a week to construct and using more than 150 tons of sand, Castle Fantastica stands more than seven metres tall with numerous towers, turrets, guards, knights on horseback and its very own wizard, all carved out of sand.
It is protected by its own 5m-long dragon that took about four tons of sand to create.
The masterpieces are the creation of three sand sculptors, two Americans and one Canadian, brought to South Africa to show off their skills during a week long fun-in-the-sun programme.
Canadian Andy Briggs said that the castle was made using only sand and water.
"The sand is put into a big box with a lot of water and we compress it until the sand becomes hard and like a block. Then we sculpt it, as simple as that," he said.
Holidaymakers enjoying the fun in the sun were suitably impressed by the beach masterpieces.
The sandy creations were built as part of a promotion by a bank and six Cape Town real estate companies to raise funds for the Kidzpositive and Rapcan children's organisations.
Close on to R50 000 will be handed over to each organisation at 11am on Sunday by a city representative.