Archive for July 14th, 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

Bahá’í Temples

Thursday, 14th July 2005 by James

The Bahá’í Faith is one of the youngest of the world’s major religions. There are currently seven Bahá’í Houses of Worship in various parts of the globe, although we can only find two of them available in high-res satellite shots.

Our first temple is in Wilmette, Illinois USA and one submitter noted that it resembles a big egg from the ground.

The second Bahá’í Temple available on Google Maps is also the most famous, The Lotus Temple in New Delhi apparently holds the title of “most visited edifice in the world”, designed to resemble a lotus flower it is composed of 27 free-standing marble clad “petals” and is just over 40 meters tall.

 Lotus

Thanks: Joe Chin, Artem Koronkevitch, Sathish, Saikat Guha, Ashutosh Rajekar, Jay Hinde, Rob B, Tom, Eamon, Esquif & Ananya Gupta

Manta Ray?

by James

Is this dark grey triangle off the coast of Rio de Janeiro a giant Manta Ray? They can apparently grow up to 8 metres wide, so if a Manta Ray was swimming near the surface we might be able to see something at the maximum zoom level. Any sealife experts willing to prove it one way or the other?