Seven artists from five different countries have sculpted the biggest ever Nativity scene made out of sand on Las Canteras beach in Las Palmas.

It was inaugurated yesterday by local Tourism councillor, Aday Ruiz and the Spanish sculptor responsible for its design, Etual Ojeda, and will be preserved until January 7th by when it is hoped that more than 180,000 visitors will have come to see it.

Costing a total of €130,000 euros, it occupies a surface area of 600m2 and was built using 270 tonnes of sand.

Depicting the whole Christmas story from the Annunciation through to the Nativity and the visit of the Three Wise Kings, it has been built in a variety of styles, including Cubism, Rennaissance and Russian art from the Stalin era.

The seven artists responsible are: Karen Fralich (Canada), Peter Busch (Denmark), Fergus Mulvany (Ireland), Vladimir Kuraev and Alexey Dyakov (Russia), and Andrei Vazhnyskyv and Iryna Kalyuzhna (Ukraine).