Staring up from what looks like a neon sign graveyard in Las Vegas is this giant Pirate Skull. Aaaar!

I’m guessing this is a disused prop from Treasure Island Casino, where they have a regular pirate show out the front.

Thanks: MediumMonkey

Taking its name from the nearby city of Dohuk, also spelled Dahuk, Dohuk Dam supplies the city with drinking water and has a 45m wide Kurdistan flag painted onto the Dam. Top to bottom the flag is red, white and green with a yellow sun in the middle.

Dohuk is located in Iraqi Kurdistan, an autonomous political entity located in Northern Iraq, although Kurdish nationalists call this “South Kurdistan” with “North Kurdistan” being in, uh, Southeast Turkey. I’m confused.

So, despite being technically in Iraq, the people here proudly fly the flag of Kurdistan and painted it on their dam - unlike the Kurdish regions of neighbouring countries Iran, Syria, and Turkey - where flying the flag is a criminal offence.

Thanks: Rawand Nawroly & J. L. Precup

The Potsdamer Platz is a huge traffic intersection and square in Berlin. In the 20s and 30s it was one of the busiest traffic centres in Europe and was the heart of Berlins’s nightlife. As is sadly the case with much of Berlin, it was bombed and shelled at the end of the second world war into nothing but rubble. After the Berlin Wall fell in 1989 the square was revitalised as a sign of the new Germany. The buildings surrounding the square were completely rebuilt, many being designed by world class architects including Renzo Piano (most famous for the Pompidou Centre in Paris). The square and surrounding streets are now full of amazing architecture much of which is stunning from the air. I’ve selected some of the best below but just scrolling around the area there is a lot to see!

Thanks: Lars

Seated at the top of 268 steps in the Po Lin Monastery in Hong Kong, is the Tian Tan Buddha - the world’s largest ’seated outdoor bronze statue of the Buddha’. The 34 metre tall sculpture can be seen facing the long set of steps rising towards it; his right hand is raised, representing the removal of affliction and his left hand lies on his knee, signifying human happiness (Wikipedia page).

That Buddha not big enough for you? In Ushiku Arcadia, Japan, you’ll find Ushiku Daibutsu, which is officially the world’s largest statue. Yes bigger than Liberty, Mother Motherland, and even The Motherland (here’s a visual comparison of the world’s tallest statues).

(thumbnail rotated 180 degrees)

“Surely it’s all plinth?” I hear you cry! Nope, this thing is 100 metres tall without the plinth (the plinth is only 20 metres). Ushiku Daibutsu is vast, enormous and gargantuan all at the same time! The Wikipedia page informs us that this Buddha has a 1.2 metre nose, a 20 metre face and a 7 metre (30 foot) finger!

Wow. That’s a big finger.

Thanks to Stephan Irle, Ray Chan, Tom Cole and Roy Burroughs.

Here’s a plane in flight, here’s another one, and another. Ah, there’s hundreds of them - Boring! Now, here’s a School Bus In Flight. That’s much more interesting!

This is actually the City Museum in St. Louis. Built in an old shoe factory, the roof decor features two aircraft fuselages and a school bus.

Thanks: B.J. Olejnik

The other day, Windows Live Local added high-resolution aerials of Edinburgh, and Alex and I promptly wasted hours and hours finding everything there was to see in our home city and arguing about the exact date the photos were taken.

I know we’re called Google Sightseeing, but I can’t resist posting Edinburgh Live Local sites, such as the Museum of Scotland, the flumes at the Commonwealth Swimming Pool, where I was married last year, where I studied at University and the Scott Monument. I could fill a whole website with these!

Anyway, one of the coolest things I found was this helicopter parked in the Meadows (a large park just beside Edinburgh University) and it reminded me of a Google Earth story which I’d meant to run a few weeks ago…

On December 1st, 2005 the Spanish opposition leader Mariano Rajoy hopped on a Police Helicopter which departed from a bullring in Mostoles, Spain and later crashed just outside the stadium, luckily no-one was badly injured.

Google Earth users spotted this picture of a helicopter in the bullring, and following some investigation, deduced that this satellite photo is in fact a picture of the helicopter that crashed on that very day, presumably only a few hours before departure.

Thanks: Simone & Amio Cajander

This is the Armadillo in Glasgow.

Oh all right, it’s really the Clyde Auditorium, but everyone calls it the Armadillo. It was designed to be a 3,000 seat extension to the boxy beige building to the north - the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre, which was the largest exhibition hall in the whole of the UK anyway.

Obviously comparisions have been made between the design of the Cylde Auditorium and that of the Sydney Opera House, and yet the architects, Foster and Partners, claim it wasn’t the inspiration for the design.

I agree, it looks more like they just stole it outright.

Thanks to Tom.

It looks like the pilot of a small aircraft has crashed into Juhu garden in Mumbai!

Actually, it turns out that this plane has never flown: it has no engine and is made of concrete, which I hear is not the most aerodynamic of materials. Submitter Rushikesh tells us that it is part of a kid’s playpark, and that you can get inside the cockpit and pretend like your flying it!

Thanks: Rushikesh Jukar