The Egg
Located in western Ibiza, in the town of Sant Antoni, “The Egg” is a large stone sculpture set up on a roundabout at the town's entrance and a popular local landmark. Erected in the 1990's is a large stone egg statue in white with a hole at its centre. In the hole is a model of the Santa Maria, which was one of Christopher Columbus's ships in which he sailed to the New World, and allegedly the one that he captained himself.
“The Egg” monument was erected to commemorate Ibiza as the birthplace of Christopher Columbus, even though this is only speculation and dreaming about from the island's inhabitants. There were similar rumours of the island as being the birthplace of Hannibal, legendary commander of the Carthaginian army and scourge of the ancient Romans. Although neither claim is backed up by fact, these urban legends add to the mystique of the island.
The reason an egg was chosen to honour the supposed birthplace of Columbus comes from an apocryphal story about where he was ridiculed over his claims of being able to find a shipping route to India through the West, and found that no one would fund his expedition as everyone at the time thought it was impossible. He then challenged his detractors by asking them if they thought standing an egg upright on its base was impossible, when they said it was, he achieved standing an egg upright on its base by cracking its base and proving his point that common held perceptions can be wrong.
