Archive for August 15th, 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

Ne Mutlu Türküm Diyene!

Monday, 15th August 2005 by Alex

Deep in the Asian part of Turkey is this giant image of the Turkish flag. The writing (which is Turkey’s national slogan), says ‘Ne mutlu Türküm diyene’, meaning ‘How happy is he who can say “I am a Turk”‘.

Turkey Flag

Thanks to Ali Ok.

Notre Dame de Paris

Monday, 15th August 2005 by Alex

This is the Notre Dame de Paris cathedral, France. More commonly known simply as “Notre Dame” (Wikipedia page), it’s a gothic cathedral on the Île de la Cité, surrounded by the river Seine. Construction began in 1163, but wasn’t finished until 1345!

Notre Dame is probably most famous as the location of Victor Hugo’s novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame, which raised awareness of the cathedral enough to help save it from being demolished in the early 19th Century. In our thumbnail you can clearly see the south tower which houses the cathedral’s famous bell, “Emmanuel”, which weighs 13 metric tons!

Arrggh, the bells, the bells!

Notre Dame

Thanks: Salinga, Baudouin Raoult, John Riggs, George Armhold, Bennet Langlotz, Paul C., Thom van Vreeswijk, UnjourenOz and Carl-Uno Ohlsson.