Archive for June 23rd, 2005

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

Spire of Dublin

Thursday, 23rd June 2005 by James

The world’s largest sculpture, The Spire of Dublin, is 120 metres tall and is located on the site of the former Nelson’s Pillar which was destroyed in an IRA bombing. The pillar is really just a very big spike, with a diameter of 3m at the base narrowing to 15cm at the top, and has no stairs or viewing platform. It casts a good shadow though!

Thanks: Me!

Chernobyl

by

The site of the Chernobyl nuclear power station is in Ukraine, at the far east of Europe. There isn’t super-high res imagery of the area but you can get the general idea of the layout. For an annotated image there is a handy one over on wikipedia. Of course, it is next to large water supply as this was used to generate the steam to drive the power generating turbines. Over 300,000 people had to be resettled because of the Chernobyl accident, around 600,000 participated in the cleanup, millions lived and continue to live in the contaminated area. An increased incidence of thyroid cancer among children in Belarus, Ukraine and Russia affected by the Chernobyl accident has been firmly established as a result of screening programs.

chernobyl

Thanks: Erin, Aaron & Thomas

Uluru

by James

Uluru, which used to be known as Ayers Rock. A sacred site to the native Australians and an awesome sight to tourists.

Thanks: Deef, Parker, Tim, nandhp, Winchester, Simon, Tom McDermott, Safog, Vaclav Papousek, Peter, Patxi, Charles, Mark, Mike, Michael Werneburg