Something that begins as a mild and interesting hobby can often end up as an all consuming passion.
In Homestead, Florida, US, there is a coral castle which is testament to this strange phenomenon.
Edward Leedskalnin was a Latvian immigrant to the US who managed to build a castle using coral stones, some of which weighed around 30 tonnes each.
So what, you might ask. Ah but Leedskalnin didn't stop with the castle. He also put up a garden of strange obelisks and other items from a total of 1,100 tonnes of rock.
Leedskalnin was about 1.5 metres tall and weighed only 50kg. He never let anyone see how he moved the rock into place, but claimed that he knew the secret of how the Egyptians built the pyramids.
His strange story began in Latvia, when, a day before he was due to get married, he was jilted by his 16-year-old fiancee. He was 26 at the time. His love for the girl - no one is really sure of her name - was apparently the motivation behind his incredible feat. So deep and pure was this love that it, and the castle, featured in Billy Idol's famous song Sweet Sixteen.
After a few years, he went to America where he fell ill with tuberculosis. It is said that he healed himself with the use of magnets.