Adam and Eve return to Eden

The new steel statue of Adam is 20-feet tall

Adam and Eve have returned to Eden as an addition to the botanical attraction in Cornwall, southwest England.

A 20-foot-tall (six metres) steel statue of Adam, which weighs almost two tonnes, is now in place as part of the new "Rope and Fibre" exhibition at the Eden Project.

With Adam will be an Eve made out of earth and turf.

The statue, designed by Cornish artist and tall ships skipper George Fairhurst, clutches a huge rope and is being used to show the importance of plant fibres in human development.

Dry dock

George Fairhurst said: "What we have tried to do is to explain rope. Rope is all about tension and weight.

Adam is joined by his biblical companion, Eve

"He will have a huge rope going over his shoulder, as if he was the first man who ever decided to cut up a plant and tie his moccasins together, or the first man that tied an elk's legs together and carried it home."

The metal statue of Adam was constructed in the dry docks at Penzance. It took four months to put together using sheets of steel. "It's been a mammoth project," George Fairhurst said.

Adam is not alone in the new display - he has an enormous earth, clay and turf sculpture of Eve staring up at him next to a row of apple trees.

Different climates

The Eve part of the exhibit has been designed and made by brother and sister Sue and Peter Hill, who were behind the sleeping "Mud Maid" at the Lost Gardens of Heligan, also in Cornwall.

Eden is attracting up to 14,000 visitors a day

Unlike Adam, who has been unveiled at the project, Eve was made under the glare of visitors to Eden.

Peter Hill said: "We've been working on it since February. But we've both got other jobs, so it hasn't been constant. It's taken about 10 weeks in total."

The Eden Project was built to recreate the Earth's different climates. Its huge domes, called biomes, are located in a former clay pit near St Austell.

Popular attraction

Each biome houses thousands of different plant species and some animals.

The Humid Tropics biome contains a rain forest and 25-metre-tall (82 ft) waterfall.

The £86m project attracted 7,000 visitors to its official opening in March and has been consistently pulling in crowds ever since.

Figures show Eden is the fourth most popular paid-for attraction in the country with up to 14,000 visitors a day.