Hello to all our new readers who saw Google Sightseeing mentioned on BBC News 24 or a recent PC Magazine article. We’re glad you’ve stopped by and suggest signing up for our RSS Feed to stay updated with new sights we post (we usually update at least once a day). Enjoy!

The Tower of Hercules is the oldest Roman lighthouse in the world and the only one still in operation. Spanish legend has it that one of the many heroes named Hercules battled the giant Gerión on this site, killed him, and built the 68 metre tower on top of his bones (Ground level picture).

There is also what appears to be a strange purple orb in the satellite photo (top left of the thumbnail). I can’t find any mention of paving art or a reflective dish near the tower, so can only conclude it is a giant version of the 80’s office toy / science experiment, the “Plasma Globe“.

Reader Brian McNeill, who lives in the area, let us know that the Plasma Globe is just a Compass rose, which you can see more clearly from this aerial photograph. Mystery solved!

Thanks: E150

Remember the Afghan Royal Palace? Well David Quin from Melbourne had seen it from ground level and took photos! He writes:

I was in Kabul in September 2003 working with the UN, writing the software for the voter’s registration system used during 2004. Whilst there had a good look around the palace. It had indeed been a magnificent building – but has (as the aerial photo shows) been extensively damaged and looted.

It is in quite a state:

Check out the UXO (UneXploded Ordnance) warnings and the shell half-buried in the ground in the third photo.

Thanks David!