Ravensburger - Aurora Over Kirkjufell 1000 Piece Puzzle

The aurora borealis over Kirkjufell in Iceland, with the Kirkjufellsfoss waterfalls in the foreground, shot on a long exposure so the water has gone to silk. From Ravensburger's Power of Nature series, and it is the puzzle that was used for the Final Teams round of the 2025 World Jigsaw Puzzle Championship.

What you are looking at

Kirkjufell is the cone-shaped mountain on the north coast of the Snaefellsnes peninsula, and it is probably the most photographed mountain in Iceland because of exactly this composition: the falls in the foreground, the peak behind, and the sky doing something extraordinary. Here the aurora is running in two bands, a green one sweeping right to left and a rare magenta-pink one cutting across the middle. The long exposure has turned the two waterfalls into smooth white ribbons and has picked up the aurora's colour reflected in the river. Beyond the mountain, the fjord, and the lights of a settlement on the far shore.

What it is like to build

The sky is two thirds of the image and it is the whole job. But unlike a plain gradient sky, this one has structure: the aurora bands have direction. Sort your sky pieces into green, teal, deep blue and magenta first, then within each pile sort by which way the streak runs. That turns an impossible field into four manageable ribbons.

The mountain is your anchor and it is a gift. A single dark green-brown triangle with hard edges against a bright sky, easy to find and it fixes the centre of the picture. Do it second, after the border. The waterfalls are the third anchor, pure white against black rock. The dark foreground rock at the bottom edge is the hardest region in the puzzle, near black with a faint moss green, and it is the right thing to leave until last.

Why the Ravensburger cut matters on an image like this

Made in Germany since 1891. No two pieces in a 1000 piece share the same shape, and on a sky this large and this smooth that is the only thing standing between you and a wrong placement you do not discover for an hour. Thick board and a linen-textured low-glare finish, which genuinely matters here: a glossy laminate over a dark night sky reflects the room straight back at you.

Specifications

A little context

Competition puzzling is a real sport and this is one of its trophies. Speed puzzling championships pick a title nobody has seen before, hand every team an identical sealed box, and start a clock. This image was the one chosen for the Final Teams round of the 2025 World Jigsaw Puzzle Championship, which tells you something about the build that no marketing copy could: it was judged hard enough to separate the best teams in the world, and fair enough to do it without luck. Power of Nature is also a numbered series, and back numbers go out of print rather than being reprinted. Derived from multiple public data sources across retail, search and community platforms, refreshed 31 August 2026.

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