A small German church has laid a bold claim to the title of “World’s most squinty building“.

Located in the town of Bad Frankenhausen, the bell tower of a 14th century church has been measured at an angle of 4.5 degrees to the vertical. With the backing of the Guinness Book of World Records, the town hopes to steal the limelight from the well know Leaning tower of Pisa and its puny 3.97 degree angle.

The folks in Italy responded to the announcement with barely more than a “meh”.

However, the nearby German town of Suurhusen kicked up fuss with their leaning church tower of 5.07 degrees, claiming this to be the true title holder¹.

Google Earth users might ask what all the fuss is about as, from appearances, the cities of New York and Dallas must hold the title with their precarious leaning skyscrapers.

These towers are, of course, not leaning at all. They are at the points where two differently angled aerial photographs have been stitched together.

Previously on Google Sightseeing we’ve seen The Leaning Tower of Pisa, Leaning Tower of Niles and the intentionally leaning Kio Towers which, at 15 degrees to the vertical, must surely be a world record contender?

Thanks: Sunday Telegraph, Craig Simpson, Simone, Jeff Cutter & Catdoor

This is the Badeschiff or “bathing ship” in Berlin, Germany – an old barge which has been converted into an outdoor swimming pool, actually in the River Spree.

Opened in the summer of 2004, the facilities have proved highly popular as it has allowed Berliners to swim (at least in a figurative sense), in the long polluted and unsanitary Spree. In fact on closer inspection you can see several people swimming when this image was captured.

The 32 metre-long pool also has a bar with DJs until midnight, and is even open all-year-round.

Read more at Wikipedia.

Thanks to Jake.

I’m sorry to report that I don’t mean any old structure either… nope, this is honestly claimed by the Chinese to be The World’s Largest Phallus. At least I think this is it – as you can see the satellite shot isn’t vey clear. To make up however, here’s a gratuitous ground-level photo!

The 9 metre erection (30 feet), is named Sky Pillar, and has been built at the Longwan Shaman Amusement Park in Changchun city, and apparently symbolizes the “pursuit of happiness and prosperity”.

Which is pretty fitting really huh?

Thanks to kjfitz, read the full story at Ananova.

The Caen Hill Flight is a set of 16 locks, designed to allow canal boats to rise 237 feet in just 2 miles of canal. This means that Caen Hill is officially the world’s steepest flight of locks. We do love obscure world’s largest facts.

Normally, canal boats travel up to a speedy 4 mph. But with all the opening and closing of gates, navigating the Caen hill flight usually takes about 5-6 hours. This means you’d be lucky to travel an average of 0.3 mph.

You may also notice that the individual locks of Caen Hill are so close together that they require an extended reservoir to the side.

Wikipedia: Caen Hill Locks

Thanks: ajho

No, you’re not seeing things. That really is a supersonic fighter aircraft parked in a university car park near Paris, France.

Believe it or not, this isn’t entirely unheard of, as we’ve previously seen a MiG-21 in a shopping centre car park. However it isn’t clear in this latest case why on earth the aircraft is parked here. All we know for the moment is that, unsurprisingly, it’s a French model – the Dassault Mirage III – which actually dates all the way back to the 50s.

Thanks to rob, jake and ensel.