The staff of GGSS would like to wish a very happy Hogmanay (or New Year as everyone else calls it) to all our readers! Since starting our sightseeing adventures in April of this year we’ve had almost two million unique visits, but we’ve got big plans for ‘06 and will continue to expand with new features and new sights. Many thanks for your continued support!

Updated Post

Made with white painted stones, this figure on a hillside near the Spanish village of Orito depicts the saint “San Pascual Bailón” who lived in a cave within these hills during the 16th century.

To the north is a cross and sanctuary where celebrations are held every year on May 17th. More information (loosely translated from spanish) on this page and a ground level shot here (the saint is to the very right hand side).

Thanks: Julio & Amio Cajander

Can anyone figure out what on earth this giant egg-like thing is, near Acton, Massachusetts?

Update: As ever our readers have come to the rescue, and it seems that this is the Annursnac Hill Reservoir, a covered water storage facility sitting on the top of Annursnac Hill. There’s a fantastic birds-eye view of it over at Live Local, although Safari users be aware that it doesn’t work with your browser yet, but it works just fine in Firefox.

Thanks to Jesse.

This is the Foster City sign in (you guessed it) Foster City, California. Founded in the 60s, Foster City is built entirely on landfill in what was previously marshland. Matt Schneider says that during the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake the reclaimed land made it feel like “being in a building on soup”.

Anyway, these giant letters are pretty cool - compare them to the size of the houses!

Thanks to William Kendrick, Mazin Jalili, Matt Schneider

Possibly the greatest basketball player of all time, Michael Jordan’s 29,000-square-foot estate near Chicago features a basketball court (of course) as well as a tennis court and putting green. Loads more info and pictures here.

Bill Gates’ 40,000-square-foot mansion in Washington is a constantly requested sight, but is in fact quite boring to look at from above (apparently it’s mostly underground). Loads more info and pictures here.

George Foreman’s Texas home is still being constructed in the satellite photo, but he’s so proud of the finished building that he’s put his name on it. The large building on the East side is the 64 car garage.

Muhammad Ali’s Michigan home is currently for sale but for your $3,200,000 you only get a measly 2 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms. However, the 81 acre plot does feature a gymnasium, steam room, tennis & basketball courts and full size boxing ring. More pictures on the Real Estate listing.

The Californian coastline mansion with a tear shaped swimming pool is home to Barbara Streisand who famously tried to sue an aerial photography website which featured her house in the middle of 12,000 photos of coastline (she lost the case). Loads more information and the offending photo here.

Thanks: MisterKen, randy phillips, Dennis, Pete, IvyMike, Matt, Ivan, Lois, Mile, Andrew, Heath, greg, Chris Blackwell, Andrey, mark, MC, Thomas van Longerich, Nelson, Slugs On Toast & Wifey!

My slackness in posting any sights so far this week is entirely the fault of the Edinburgh design agency where I work, who insisted on taking us all to Dublin this past weekend for our Christmas party! Anyway, the Guinness has finally worn off and I’m ready to report some of my findings.

Our first port of call was, naturally, Dublin Airport which has some cool car park ramps (okay, so they might be cooler from the ground). There’s a plane just about to touch down on the runway here too.

On our way into Dublin we passed an enormous stadium, which turned out to be Croke Park, an 80,000 seater stadium where sports such as Gaelic Football and Hurling are played. Interestingly, although the teams play in front of 80,000 people the players do not get paid, as Gaelic games are completely amateur.

Croke Park will be a lot busier in the near future, as Lansdowne Road is due to be redeveloped, at which time all their games will relocate to Croke Park.

We were staying in the Trinity Capital Hotel which was lovely, extremely central, and right next to Trinity college, the oldest University in Ireland. Trinity was founded in 1592 and although this makes it a lot younger than the other ancient universities of Britain and Ireland, in 1904 it actually became the first of them to admit women. Trinity College is also the location of the Book of Kells, which is on permanent display in the university library.

After we dumped our things at the hotel, we all went off for a spot of sightseeing… Well actually, that mostly involved drinking Guinness in Temple Bar… but we did spot the previously posted Spire of Dublin off in the distance, which currently has some pretty Christmas lights on it.

That night we went to a club called Pod, where we danced the night away, before walking back to the hotel past St. Stephen’s Green - where it seems every girl in Dublin tried to find out if I had anything on under my kilt…

On Sunday we went to the Guinness Storehouse, a seven-storey building devoted to the history, advertising and (most importantly) the drinking of Guinness. The central circle in the satellite image is the glass roof of a huge circular space the whole height of the building - and you can see the view from the other direction in my photo. The slightly offset circle to the east is the Gravity bar, where visitors can collect their free pint and take in a spectacular 360° view of the whole of Dublin.

Walking home we passed Christ Church Cathedral, the oldest building in Dublin, which has been standing here in one form or another since it was founded in 1038. It also holds the world record for largest number of bells that are rung full circle. There’s 19 of them! I took the photo facing north, and you can see where the church has been built over the road in both shots.

Phew, I think that’s me finally done! Dublin was fantastic, although it makes you realise what we miss out on when we virtually sightsee… ‘cos there’s no Craic in satellite photos!

Thanks to Tiernan O’Toole, Mark, David Knighton, Frank Smyth, Steve Hogarty, Doug Hawkins, Buzzzzz, AlaskaFox, Martin Sinnott and everyone at Whitespace!

The Grande Arche is a modern Parisian monument which mirrors the Arc de Triomphe. From above it has the appearance of a giant cube although it is in fact an arch, there’s good panoramas and pictures on From Paris.

Thanks: UnjourenOz, Thomas van Longerich & Julien G

On the even years in the month of September, the locals of Marostica, North Italy play human chess on this Giant Chess Board.

The event dates back to 1454 when a Lord decided to marry off his two daughters to the winner (and loser) of the giant chess game. The pieces dressed in full costume (the knights are of course on real horses) and the two suitors commanded the moves. The winner of the game was to marry the elder sister while the loser got to marry the younger (I bet she was thrilled with the idea).

More info and pictures on the official website.

Thanks: Alessandro G.