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I of course don't have English as my primary language, so have some forgiveness. I would translate the name as

  • "The Rock Zoo" (doesn't seem to make it)
  • "The Zoo on Rock" (better)
  • "The Zoo on Stone"
  • "The Zoo on Stones"

Which one(s) is( are) correct and proper? Is there a better way to say it?

dsign
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    This is really writing advice, since if such a thing exists it is too rare to have a 'normal name'; try Writers.SE. But my personal choice would be 'The Stone Zoo', since rock is usually uncarved. – Tim Lymington Apr 28 '14 at 12:42
  • The Rock Zoo from Hollywood, Alabamahttp://www.oocities.org/heartland/estates/8834/rock.html –  Apr 28 '14 at 12:44
  • Thanks for your answer, I will use that name then. Yes, such a thing exists... – dsign Apr 28 '14 at 12:47
  • dsign, TimLymington made a good point. It is not a common thing and therefore, there is no "correct and proper" way to refer to it. You can call it whatever you want. Your suggestions using the word on, don't clearly convey what you mean. They make it sound to me, as if you mean a zoo that was built using rocks or stones as its foundations http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/foundation_2 – Tristan r Apr 28 '14 at 14:28
  • Technically since the stone is carved they are statues. A Statue Zoo would be more appropriate, though clumsy to say. The The Zoo of Statues maybe? – Jonathan Eltgroth Apr 28 '14 at 14:48
  • Thanks to the abiding influence of Tennessee Williams and his play The Glass Menagerie, I think that most people (in the United States, anyway) would get an immediate sense that the collection consisted of stone carvings of animals if you called it "the Stone Menagerie." Whether the name would have the same resonance elsewhere in the English-speaking world, I don't know. To me, "the Rock Zoo" sounds too much like a collection of wild-rock counterparts of Pet Rocks. – Sven Yargs Apr 28 '14 at 21:19
  • Sven Yargs, "the Stone Menagerie" has no, obvious meaning, in the UK. – Tristan r Apr 29 '14 at 15:01

3 Answers3

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Conventionally that is known as a sculpture garden. There's not a term that specifies "of all animals," so "animal sculpture garden" is the closest thing canonically short of making stuff up as an allegorical name. I would say that "menagerie" rather than "zoo" is more often used to describe a collection of animal sculptures (given a quick googling of sites with such, "zoo" is pretty much never used...).

mxyzplk
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What kind of stone is it? You can name if from the stone.

Alabaster, African wonderstone, alberene, and softer kinds of serpentine are not uncommon for small carvings/sculpture.

The Alabaster Zoo has a nice sound to it.

Limestone and sandstone are also popular for smaller carvings. The Limestone Zoo is not as 'pretty' perhaps as others, but facts are facts.

Marble, travertine, and onyx: the preferred stone since the time of classical Greece. The Marble Zoo would have the benefit of a 'classical' sound to it.

Granite is an extremely difficult stone to work. I doubt your zoo is made of granite, but if it is, The Granite Zoo is appropriate.

Finally you can use metaphor to name your zoo. Michelangelo has some hauntingly unfinished sculptures named the slaves because they are not free of their stone blocks. Your zoo is frozen forever in stone, prisoners, unseeing, etc. You can use a metaphorical name, e.g. The Frozen Zoo.

anongoodnurse
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Here in Boston we have a 'Stone Zoo.' Unfortunately for this question, it consists of ordinary animals. It's in the town of Stoneham.

I'd call it a Sculpture Zoo. In English, 'stone' does not very directly suggest a sculpture, nor does 'rock'. All of those constructions will suggest collections of mineral samples, not statues.

bmargulies
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