Google Sightseeing takes you on tour of the world as seen from satellite, using the free Google Earth program, or Google Maps in your web browser. Each weekday your guides James and Alex present new weird and wonderful sights as suggested by readers.

The editors: James & Alex

Black Rock City (Burning Man)

Tuesday, 19th April 2005 by Alex

This is the site of Black Rock City, which is built and torn down every year for the week long annual Burning Man festival.

Chach says:

Looks like this was flown shortly before the festival.. the street grid and intial construction of some core buildings is underway

Burning Man

Thanks to Patrick Nichols, Ottowt, David, Jeff Alu, Daniel Copeland, Gudlyf, Joed Polly, Casey, Andy, Ken Berger, Nomad, Chach… and the several people whose submissions I deleted before I caught your names. My apologies :-D

3 Responses to 'Black Rock City (Burning Man)'

  1. 1. Jamison says:

    You can tell this was taken in 2003 because of the square at the very center of the large semi-circle (the ten concentric circles and the radial spikes through them are the city streets, or would be a week later).

    That year The Man stood upon a dais designed in the spirit of an Aztec ziggurat with a square footprint. A friend was able to further narrow it down to just two days, Sunday August 20, 2003 or Monday August 21, 2003 after placing her own dome in the Cafe Village and the state of construction of the Center Camp Cafe (the smaller circle centered in the photo here).

  2. 2. derek says:

    Notice if you zoom out, they specifically got the high-res of that area. And Black Rock City’s home is pretty recognizable from the air.

    Can someone pull some strings and get a new photo taken this year during the event? That would be cool. We could all get out on the playa and Placemark: spell something / Google Earth.

  3. 3. William says:

    To the southwest you can see a faint reminder of Black Rock Cities of the past. I will be joining the VW Bus Camp next year. Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
    To the north east of the posted BRC are some interesting vehicle tracks. I find it hard to believe these were made by a single vehicle. Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth

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