Putting together jigsaw puzzles is a hobby enjoyed by both the young and old. It’s challenging, exciting, educational, and requires a little bit experience and a lot of patience. The more pieces and variety a puzzle has, the more challenging and exciting it becomes. So the jigsaw puzzle manufacturers are constantly trying to produce puzzles that are larger and more exciting with lots of variety and beautiful artwork.

Taking these things into consideration, a leading puzzle manufacturer called Educa has surprised even the most demanding puzzle fans with the launch of the world's largest puzzle. Up to now, the brand's largest puzzle had consisted of only 18,000 puzzle pieces.

This puzzle consists of exactly 24,000 pieces and has rightly been called Vida (Life) - The Great Challenge. Whether it’s by the number of pieces or by the width and height, this puzzle is the World's largest Jigsaw Puzzle. Once completed, the enormous puzzle measures an impressive 428 x 157 cm (or 14.04 feet by 5.15 feet!), enough to decorate a wall of room.

Due to its size the puzzle has been separated into four packets of 6000 pieces, breaking the artwork up into four vertical sections that join together to make the world's largest jigsaw puzzle.

The artwork for the puzzle has been especially designed by a veteran puzzle artist, Royce B. McClure, who has had over a hundred jigsaw puzzles previously published. All the art that makes up 'LIFE: The Great Challenge' has come from paintings he had completed over many years, which had then been scanned and recomposed to best fit this enormous sized puzzle, making each section different enough from the other sections so that the puzzler won't feel they are doing the same puzzle over and over. The end result like life itself, the puzzle is full of variety, color, activity, beauty, drama and above all Life. The puzzle has been priced at $299.99

Annick Oriol from Belgium was the first to complete the puzzle. It had taken her 28 days and 20 hours. Lucky Annick is sitting on the puzzle she completed in this photograph.