By Vurdlak on July 22, 2010, with 141 Comments
Just a quick newsflash here – after more than a month, finally I have managed to fix the “Top Rated Illusions” section. I’m talking about that nice little block at the end of our sidebar, one that gives you a list of all time highest rated illusions. The list is now automatically updated once per hour, so if you think some illusions deserve to be there, be sure to rate them accordingly! For the illusion part, you may think these stairs below were digitally manipulated, but I dare to day it’s just an illusion. Can you figure out how the author did this?
(113 votes)
umm…..the author just stacked smaller and smaller blocks on top of each other???
IMHO it’s a sculpture made by progressive smaller steps… so we think it’s an infinite stairway, but it’s only a sort of pyramid…
lol a stairway to heaven
is it a pyramid shape thingy?
and what the rope in front of it..?
How is this an illusion?
i know this sounds stupid but i would call this a stairway to heaven since its a never ending stairway into the sky
By making the stairs become narrower so they come to a point at the top?
it’s just a pyramid.
It’s just a pyramid.
Just a triangle with jagged edges? It looks awesome if that’s what it is.
dont know about the stair illusion, but the dog face and the seal face illusion are unreal
You’ve got to make the steps short in height as well as length. That gives the illusion of going off into eternity…
Haha. Yeah It’s is just a pyramid made to look like it is going back, but it just goes straight up
I’m not sure what you fixed with the highest rated illusions list, but it is not very effective currently – most articles on the list only have a few votes, and are probably there by chance.
I don’t think it’s photoshoped, it a good one!
I am probably the th to write so, but there is a mistake in the intro “but I dare to day it’s just an illusion.”
If it’s an un-doctored photo, it looks like it’s built using forced perspective.
blocks of stone on top of each other, creating a pyramid almost like the temples of the mayan and aztec civilizations. Great illusion though!
Its just like a pyramid right? It doesn’t go out over the edge, its flat on the back
Its a tower stretching upwards, that looks like stairs going forward. Great illusion.
It’s a vertical structure.
Pretty good illusion if not looked at too closely. The work done to make the actual structure must’ve been extensive. Photography is very beautiful. I like it a lot. Illusion wise, i give it 4 stars. Good, but simple.
Is it that staircase is an arc, and the point where it “disappears” into the clouds is its zenith?
Very beautiful illusion though. Has a haunting quality to it…
in my opinion its just a step pyramid, looked at from the right distance and angle it would look like a stair case
Hint: Look at the line through the middle…
It’s a pyramid.
The stairs aren’t very long. Just above a person head. They get narrow and smoler steps too fast. It gives the sensation of being very long. Very good perspective illusion.
wow first comment.
I think it is either a statue or the author has done something to it because there is a line going through it that definitely wouldn’t be there in real life.
I’d like to see the side view of this.
That’s just like an egyptian pyramid exept smaller , you can’t see the other sides and every step gets smaller
I would venture to guess that it is a sculpture fabricated to look as if it were stairs when observed from one specific point, however I am stumped as to the nature of what appears to be a twisted wire crossing upwards and to the left in front of the object and the trees in the background. It makes no sense as it appears to be only a few feet above the ground in front of the structure. The only other explanation I could come up with is that the stairs are actually a picture suspended horizontally but that would mean it is protruding from (what appears to be) the top of the slope a very long way. It would be difficult to support such a picture let alone a structure that distance. This is a very effective illusion. Either that or it really is an astounding structure.
great illusion … . . folded paper maybe . . .
I can’t figure out! Using mirrors?
Would you tell us please?
I think it was mirrors.
are you Russian?
i think i have seen this before, but it looks like a statue that has been taken from a very deseptive angle.
easy, it’s like looking at a pyramid
Once you get past the first 3-4 steps, it goes more up than out, and the steps graduate down to about 1cm by the top, so the whole thing is about 2.5-3m high.
I think it’s some kind of pyramid, with the right angle you can do wonders in photography :D
It’s a pyramid shape that uses forced perspective. Kind of like when you’re a kid and you draw those railroad tracks that look like they’re going into the distance. Pretty neat and always effective.
Well it’s just a pyramid, straight up, with jagged edges………..isn’t it?
B
Cool illusion. I like this one a lot :-)
They aren’t stairs, it’s just a marble obelisk. The ‘steps’ aren’t getting further away towards the top, they really are getting smaller, just like they look like.
I’m guessing it must be a pyramid of some sort. That is very interesting – I have to force myself to see it as a pyramid or my eyes keep reverting back to the illusion.
I’m guessing that the background is just a painted backdrop and so are most of the steps going up, the foreground is an artificial scene created on a set.
well, its more likely a photographed back drop as opposed to a painted one.
It’s just a pyramid!!!!
WOAH- THAT”S SOOOOOO COOL!!!
XD as you can tell im very excited i figured it out by myself!!!!!
wow
Wow! This is amazing! I am having a hard time believing what I am seeing.
hmmm weird
From about the 8th step from the bottom, the shadows don’t need to align to the step below it, so you can just make a ribbed patterns creating the illusion of ‘going up’.
Its a pyramid
It’s a pyramid
Wow great illusion. Took me a while to spot it
I have no idea! Photo-Shop?? <3
the triangle effect, where its just the stairs are a drawn triangle, but with detail and background added to it
on another hand, i cant believe that the ‘chop cup: wheres the ball?’ video is not in the top ten. that was one of the most awesomest videos ever
it’s just statue :p
Tapered Pyramid would achieve this effect easily without having any exorbitant dimensions
erm, there only stairs till above eye level, then its just a verticle tower made to look like stairs
I’m thinking it’s a pyramid rather than stairs, but I really don’t know.
Is this anything like Jacob’s ladder?
Guess I’ll be listening to my old Led Zeppelin albums again. Very nice illusion. My guess is a pyramid face with an exaggerated vanishing point. I’d love to see a photograph from a different perspective.
I’m presuming it’s just a pyramid?
Forced (false) perspective?
Its a pyramid that just gets smaller and smaller vertically giving the illusion that it extends outward toward the water. With or Without the illusion, its a beautiful photograph.
My guess is that it’s a pyramid, not stairs!
make sure you look at the picture when it is smaller and don’t let the title deceive you. its just a small white pyramid.
great illusion but i think you should talk about the illusion first, then about anything unrelated.
id say that its a not a really long stair, but rather, a triangular stair with the stairs shrinking and the photo taken at a certain angle..cool illusion!
It’s a statue that goes to a point…taken at the right angle it looks as though they are stairs going towards the heavens. Nice illusion.
I think it’s marble or stone slabs cut into very precise sizes, and stacked one on top of another. The great part of this piece is that every slab has to be an exact size. Good illusion.
Seems to me that it is a kind of staircase pyramid where each “step” is actually sloping. You can see the angle on the sides and that it varies forming a perspective from the correct angle, thus making a staircase.
I may be completely wrong, but that’s what I see.
Wonderful! Where is it? Who is the author??
Yeah, it’s all about the angle. Kinda like the 3D chalk drawings.
I would like to see it from another angle.
Forgot to say that it is like a statue standing right in front of you, with the steps getting darker and smaller all the way up, so it looks like it reaches the sky when you stand right in front of it.
At least, that’s what I think.
nice ilussion
This appears to be a pyramid shaped monument with each level decreasing in size. I actually saw the monument before I saw the stairs.
Yup. The flat part of the stairs (where you’d step)are not flat but beveled angles. It could be (we can’t see the whole thing) that it’s a beveled pyramidal shape overall. The illusion is that the beveled “steps” are flat and that you could actually step on them. You couldn’t or you’d like slip off. The distance illusion is the size of the “steps” getting smaller as the pyramidal shape reaches it’s point.
thats pretty obvious. its a pyramid rather than stairs. still looks pretty cool though.
At the end of your post, it says, “For the illusion part, you may think these stairs below were digitally manipulated, but I dare to day it’s just an illusion.” You may want to fix the word “day”" and change it to “say”.
However, nice illusion. I love the site.
Last, but not least. FIRST!!!
it’s a pyramid that keeps on getting smaller
kinda pyramid shaped
I love this, I can see how it works, and I love it! Would like to see a side view.