A memorial to the native American chief Crazy Horse being carved out of the granite of the Black Hills of Dakota, USA, is developing into the largest carving in the world.

The top of a mountain is being blasted and cut into a statue of Crazy Horse sitting on his horse.

So far the work consists only of the chief\'s face. It is almost 30m high and as big as all four heads carved into Mount Rushmore put together. Reaching this stage has already taken 53 years.

The work was started by Korczak Ziolkowski. On his death in 1982 the project was taken over by his widow and seven of their sons and daughters.

The face was unveiled in June 1998, when the second phase of the project was started. That involves drilling and blasting out benches so that work can begin on carving the horse\'s head.

Korczak, a sculptor, was invited to carve Crazy Horse by Chief Henry Standing Bear in 1948. Korczak\'s first job, before he could even start sculpting, was to build a 741-step stair up to the top of the mountain.

Godfrey Hall came across the project while visiting America and supplied the photograph and details.