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.
Benito Mussolini, Italy’s Facist Dictator during World War II, gave himself the title of “Il Duce”, or “Dux” in latin, which translates to “leader”. Around this time one of his followers planted trees in the hills, about 75km from Rome, proclaiming “DUX” for all to see.
Apparently locals in the 50s tried to erase the letters by planting more trees around the area but clearly that wasn’t very successful, and the 600 foot propaganda still stands.
Thanks: Aldo
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600 ft tall…those are some trees
Mussolini’s granddaughter still heads a neo-fascist political party in Italy. Perhaps it’s a political ad.
damn their hides! Lets blast those faschists with some proper DUX…duxford airfield!
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
It may be just me, but looking at the group of trees below those letters I can see what looks like vague letters - could there have been a phrase underneath?
I did a google search on this, and apparently this site has been “restored” by local residents as a sort of tourist spot, to spell out the words. Im not sure if this is the same one…
http://www.historytoday.com/dt_archive.news.asp?gid=19810&aid=&tgid=&amid=19810&g19810=x&g30066=x&g30048=x&g30040=x&g30039=x&g21010=x&g19965=x&g19963=x
oh dear… I’m sure we’ll find one with berlusconi somewhere
rob, you are right, it’s the same site.
some ground shots here:
http://www.repubblica.it/2004/a/sezioni/cronaca/scrittamonte/scrittamonte/scrittamonte.html
it’s been recently restored using taxpayer’s money (about 135k euro) as they say it’s a monument.
have google earth live