Northumberlandia: The naked lady of Cramlington

Northumberlandia, also known as "The Lady of The North" is a piece of public art built into the landscape of Cramlington in Northumberland.

Planned for seven years and built over two, she is the largest landscape replica of the female body ever seen in the world, her creators say.

She stands 112ft (34m) high at her tallest point, her forehead, and is 1,300ft (400m) long.

She is made up of 1.5m tonnes of rock, soil, stone and clay.

During a visit to the site last year, Charles Jencks, who began his designs for Northumberlandia in 2005, admitted the artwork was "much bigger than I ever thought".

Her creation was part of the planning application made by the Banks Group and Blagdon Estate when they requested to create what is now the largest surface mine in England, Shotton Surface Mine.

Made from the by-products of that opencast mine, the figure is created in layers.

First is a core of rock, then clay and lastly soil, topped with grass seed that will withstand being walked on.

Some of her features are artistically highlighted with stone from the mine that is often used for the restoration of old buildings.

The privately funded figure has been created on private land that will be open to the public when Northumberlandia is ready to be officially revealed to the world, at a ceremony attended by Princess Anne on Monday.

Katie Perkin, communications manager for the Banks Group, said: "It cost £3m for us to create Northumberlandia. We wanted to give something back.

From BBC News