Escher’s Waterfall Contructed in 3D

Few days ago I checked my mailbox and noticed three of our readers submitted and suggested Escher’s Waterfall to our optical illusions database. We love Escher, and have posted his work in the paste: “Staircase”, “Ascending”, “Tribute To MC Escher”, “Escher’s Google Earth”… Thanks to Wong Wen Yen here we have high-res picture of Impossible Waterfall. But wait… That’s not all! If you jump inside this article you will notice a video clip of Escher’s Waterfall masterfully recreated by Shigeo Fukuda. The water really seems to flow uphill in this small scale model. Previously I posted “Underground Piano”, also done by Fukuda. Check it. But first, jump inside this post to see Waterfall video clip sent to us by Jason Ahn and Eddie Tio.



“Everything seems to be in place, yet we seem to be in a strange universe where water flows uphill. What is wrong with it? Well, nothing is wrong with it. It is just our minds trying to equate the lines Escher drew with what our senses perceive of the real world.”

Here’s another videoclip of “Waterfall” I found on YouTube. The only difference is that this one wasn’t constructed in real life, but instead made digitally. Never the less explantions are here…

24 Replies to “Escher’s Waterfall Contructed in 3D”

  1. Wow, ive seen it a million times before, but i just love it. Anyone notice the garden near the little dude? It makes the affect that you might be underwater.. adding a whole new level to the picture. I hail Escher! This picture is everywhere in the Calgary Science Centre.

  2. nice but the first vid is removed “due to terms of violation”

    It sure looks impossible thou

    ~Alyssa

  3. In God of War 3 (a game for PS3, FYI) they have a puzzle based on this very picture. It had to be the most creative thing I’ve seen in a video game.

  4. It’s YouTube video number CAJnr5_p1qk (just search YouTube for that number). Explanations are on the linked videos. (Lots of good stuff to be found if you Google “Shigeo Fukuda” — the guy is a master of illusions.)

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