"The Sultan's Elephant" is a show created by the French theatre company "Royal de Luxe". It involves a huge moving mechanical elephant and other associated public art installations. In French it is called "La visite du sultan des Indes sur son éléphant à voyager dans le temps" (literally, "Visit From The Sultan Of The Indies On His Time-Traveling Elephant").

The elephant is made mostly of wood, and is operated by over ten puppeteers using a mixture of hydraulics and motors. It weighs 42 tons, as much as 7 African elephants. A replica of the elephant was built in Nantes (France) in 2007, as part of the Machines of the Isle of Nantes permanent exhibition.

The performance you see in the video took place in London, England, from 4-7th May 2006.

The show started with a rocket "crashing" in Waterloo Place on Thursday May 4, smashing up the tarmac, with smoke coming out from the bottom. This amused and confused passers-by, as some had no idea what was going on.

On Friday, the elephant arrived, along with the Sultan. An oversize marionette emerged from the rocket - this was the girl from the Sultan's dreams. The girl met up with the elephant. Friday evening the elephant wandered round St. James', while the girl went on a trip around London on an opentop Routemaster bus.

On Saturday, the elephant walked to Trafalgar Square, where it rested over lunch. Then the girl marionette was lifted by a crane onto the elephant's trunk, and was carried on 'Grand Parade' back to Horseguards Parade, with the 'sultan' sightseeing with a troop of dancers on top of the elephant.

The girl has a needle and thread, and likes to sew things, including a series of cars that were 'sewn' to the tarmac.

On Sunday, the show finished with a Grand Finale, in which the girl climbed into the rocket, which then 'took off'. This involved the rocket firing, with smoke and flames coming out of the bottom. The rocket didn't go anywhere, but when the top was removed from the rocket, by a crane, the girl had disappeared. She had travelled in time.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sultan's_Elephant
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_de_luxe