World's Largest Rubik's Cube

Knoxville, Tennessee

The World's Largest Rubik's Cube stood at the entrance to the Hungarian Pavilion at the 1982 Knoxville World's Fair, which was best known for its iconic Sunsphere. The Cube, ten feet high and 1,200 pounds, constantly changed its color patterns thanks to a complex set of internal motors. When the Fair closed no one in Knoxville knew what to do with the Cube, and it eventually wound up beneath a freeway overpass, abandoned. This dereliction of civic duty was exposed by the Knoxville News Sentinel, and the embarrassed city then had the Cube restored and moved into the city's Convention Center for the Fair's 25th anniversary in 2007.

However, the Cube's mysterious custom mechanics remain a maintenance nightmare. When it breaks down, it languishes, motionless, until civic embarrassment fuels another scramble to find someone who can repair it.

We've visited the Cube several times and have never seen it move. Zach Morgan, manager of the Sunsphere, told us, "It still works, but they don't plug it in very often because it's so old."