At a Glance

The structure is made from 7,506 55-gallon oil barrels, is 66 feet tall and weighs about 650 tons. The pyramid is a test run for an even larger structure Christo plans for the desert in Abu Dhabi.

Environmental artist Christo has created his first outdoor exhibition in the U.K.,which features 7,506 oil barrels floating in London's Hyde Park.

Titled the“” after a flat-roofed structure that originated in Mesopotamia some 6,000 years ago, Christo’s massive trapezoidal pyramid is 66 feet tall, the same height as the famed Sphinx in Egypt. Weighing about 650 tons,the structure comprised ofred, white, blue and mauve 55-gallon barrels rests on a floating platform anchored in the park's manmade Serpentine Lake.

As impressive as it is, the pyramid is really just a test run for an even larger structure Cristo plans for the desert in Abu Dhabi in the future. If he manages to pullit off, Christo's Abu Dhabi mastaba will be eight times as high as the one in London.

Another view of the pyramid that features 7,501 oil barrels.

(Wolfgang Volz/christojeanneclaude.net)

Bulgarian Born Christo, 83, along with his now-deceased wife Jeanne-Claude, have been creating temporary and some might say theatrical art pieces using oil barrels since 1958. The couple is also known fora 25-mile fence they erected inNorthern California, as well as for wrapping fabric around the Pont Neuf bridge in Parisand around Berlin’s Reichstag building.

Christo says his love of barrels began back in the late 1950s when he first stacked barrel drums in the at 14 rue de Saint-Senoch in Paris. He later moved to a studiolocated in the Paris suburb of Gentillynext to a junkyard that storeddrums, which he was able to use in subsequent installations.

"I love the ; it is something very common for transporting goods, starting from little cans to the big barrels," Christo told the Art Newspaper. "They are industrial, they can have different colors, different varieties, and are extremely simple, very magical and very difficult to explain. It is a very extraordinary sculptural form."

(PHOTOS:)

It took nearly a year for Christo to acquire the needed permits for his London Mastaba and another two and a half months to construct the pyramid.

“Each work of ours is , something incredibly invigorating,” Christo told the New York Times. “I love to be here with the workers. I like that process. That journey is so incredible, unforgettable.”

Christo and his wife's works have always been met with some controversy, and the London Mastaba is no exception. Reaction tothe exhibition hasbeen mixed.

One member of the publicdeclared the exhibition an "," reports the Telegraph.

The pond is popular for swimming and one long-time member of the Serpentine Swimmers Club complained that the structure now "casts a shadow on the water."

"We’re swimming in gloom,” the swimmer said.

Others love the piece, including a fan who said the pyramid "makes a change from the wildlife" that frequents the pond.

The exhibition funded entirely by Christo himself will runthrough Sept. 23, 2018. If you can't make it to London to see the pyramid for yourself, you can experience the exhibition virtually via the free app beginning July 10.