Nissim Kahalon was born in 1945 in Tel Aviv's Hatikva neighborhood to a family of immigrants from Tripoli. Following his military service, he sought a place in which to live outside the city, and arrived at a sandstone cliff on the beach north of Herzliya. There, at Sidne Ali, he has lived for the past 40 years, continually building his home, which began as a cave dug out in the sandstone, evolving to become a spectacular architectural structure spanning decorated burrows, built-up tunnels, mosaics, and sculptures.

- The work -
Kahalon seldom buys building materials. He uses what he f inds, from rusty scraps to industrial waste discarded on the beach. He builds all day, every day, exploring building options by trial and error. The creator of the
structure now towering on the beach-A fort? A castle? A little village?- is thus one link in a glorious chain of outsider artists-builders who never studied architecture or art, yet left behind striking buildings
which they built with their own hands for years-among them French postman Ferdinand Cheval who, between 1879 and 1912, constructed the "Ideal Palace" (Le Palais Ideal) in the village of Hauterives, and the Italian-American Sabato (Simon) Rodia who, between 1921 and 1954, built 17 towers in the Watts district of Los Angeles. Similarly, Kahalon creates fantastical architecture via ongoing, scrupulous manual labor, inventing and solving problems as the building progresses.