(It’s Island Week 2 here at GSS, which means we’ll mostly be posting about Islands. For about a week.)

Pollepel Island is located in the Hudson River, New York. A characterless lump of rock, it would have been completely uninteresting had Francis Bannerman not decided to build a castle on the island, and then fill it with weapons…

This was in the late 1800s and Bannerman, a Scottish immigrant, and the world’s largest buyer of surplus military equipment was doing a roaring trade in munitions. When he purchased most of the captured goods from the Spanish American war he needed somewhere to store it all, preferably somewhere where large amounts of gunpowder would be safe.

So he purchased Pollepel Island and set about building an imitation Scottish castle of his own design, complete with lookout turrets and a moat. The buildings took 17 years to complete and feature giant concrete text across the side which reads “Bannerman’s Island Arsenal”.

Years later, the family sold the island back to New York State who for a short time operated tours around the castle. Although all the munitions had been removed, in 1969 a fire of “unknown origin” destroyed the building’s interiors, making it too dangerous to visit. Today, a trust group hope to stabilise the castle and re-open it for tours.

More info on the castle at its official website, the Hudson river site, and of course Wikipedia.

Thanks to Marc Cohen and Bill Parco.

(It’s Island Week 2 here at GSS, which means we’ll mostly be posting about Islands. For about a week.)

Located in the south eastern Pacific Ocean, almost four thousand kilometers from continental Chile, Easter Island - or locally Rapa Nui - is one of the world’s most isolated inhabited islands¹, as well as one of the world’s most fascinating archaeological sites.

Photo of Rano Raraku Moai from mappic.org

The human history of Easter Island probably began somewhere between AD 300 and 1200 when people from the islands west of here landed with the tools, animals and provisions to stay for good. Although only 171 km² in area, at the time Easter Island had extensive forests, and the volcanic craters held drinking water - which is an important feature on an island with no rivers.

Rano Kau volcano (Picture)

Somewhere between AD 1000 and 1500, the Rapanui began a period of frantic construction of enormous stone statues - the Moai, for which Easter Island is world famous today. These enigmatic figures represented the islander’s deified ancestors, and were mostly placed near the coast, with their backs to the sea.

Moai of Ahu Nau Nau, Anakena Beach (Picture)

Moai are hewn from the island’s volcanic rock², and the largest Moai erected was almost 10 metres high and weighed 75 tonnes; their production and transportation is considered a remarkable accomplishment.

Moai of Ahu Tongariki (Picture)

887 Moai have been identified to date, however only a quarter ever made it to one of the coastal Ahu platforms - nearly half of all Moai remain at a single site called Rano Raraku, the volcanic crater where 95% were originally carved. The landscape is littered with 397 Moai - some half-finished, some semi-submerged in the earth through erosion, and others never even detached from the rock.³

Rano Raraku crater, Rano Raraku Moai (Picture)

By the time explorers arrived here in the 18th Century, the forests of the island had completely disappeared. It’s unknown whether or not the Rapanui had used all the trees in the construction of the Moai, or if some other ecological factor was involved, but either way the islanders were now trapped - there was no longer any wood available for making seaworthy canoes.

After this things began to go rapidly downhill for the inhabitants of Easter Island. There followed a period of tribal wars, raids by Peruvian slavers, epidemics of European diseases, and the conversion of the entire island into a sheep farm. During this period much Rapa Nui culture was lost forever, nearly all of the Moai were deliberately toppled (probably by warring tribal factions), and by the late 19th century only 111 of the indigenous people remained alive.

Somehow, against all the odds, today there are several thousand descendants of the surviving 111 Rapanui living on Easter Island - which now has sustainable forestry and the longest runway in Polynesia (having been extended to function as an emergency landing place for the U.S. Space Shuttle). The Moai have returned too - many have been re-erected on their Ahus around the island and one has even been given new eyes.

Moai at Ahu Akivi, unusual in not being on the coast, and facing towards the sea (Picture)

Read more about Easter Island and Moai at Wikipedia.

Thanks to Josh, Adam, Reinhold and Didier.

(It’s Island Week 2 here at GSS, which means we’ll mostly be posting about Islands. For about a week.)

On the mighty Mississippi River, Memphis, Tennessee, is Mud Island, which is home to a steamboat museum, restaurants, an outdoor amphitheatre and some nice large type.

Okay, technically Mud Island isn’t actually an island, but rather a small peninsula. However, it does contain a hydraulic scale model of the lower Mississippi recreated in miniature all the way from Cairo, Illinois south to New Orleans!

Which probably makes this the world’s only model of a river on an island (that’s actually a peninsula) in the river that the model is a model of…

Or something.

Read more about Mud Island at Wikipedia. Thanks to dedHED and Nat Case.

(It’s Island Week 2 here at GSS, which means we’ll mostly be posting about Islands. For about a week.)

The Pitcairns are a group of four islands: Pitcairn, Henderson, Ducie, and Oeno, which are all located near New Zealand in the Pacific Ocean.

The islands are classed as a British overseas territory and have an official population of just 48, making them the least populated jurisdiction in the world.

All 48 of the islands’ inhabitants, who are just 9 different families, live in Adamstown on the main island of Pitcairn. Adamstown is therefore unchallenged as the capital city, and with that title earns the record for World’s smallest capital city.

The population is unlikely to rise anytime soon; the islanders mostly descend from British mutineers of the HMAV Bounty and only two children have been born in the last 21 years.

Wikipedia Links: Pitcairn Islands and Adamstown.

Thanks: koen & tizerst

Surprisingly on-time, the following week of Google Sightseeing will be dedicated to our Second Annual Island Week.

Following on from the success of last year’s Island Week, we’ll be posting sights related to small pieces of land that are surrounded completely by water.

Island Week 2006 featured:

• Iwo Jima
• South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
• Cockburn Island
• Island of the Dead
• James Island
• Wake Island
• Republic of the Marshall Islands
• Low Isles

Actually, you could barely call this childish scrawl on the roof of a French University “art” (stop sniggering).

By my calculations (yes, I measured), at around 7.7 metres this is actually the smallest of the penises so far found on Google Earth. Slightly smaller than the English School roof one (7.9 metres), a bit smaller than the Cerne Abbas Giant’s 8.3 metre member, and completely dwarfed by the massive 53.4 metre phallus etched into this frozen lake in Connecticut.

However at 7.98 metres across, I’m pretty sure this qualifies as the world’s largest drawing of an arse.

See also: The Pen 15 Club, Rude Alien Crop Art and The Cerne Abbas Giant.

Thanks to Arno and Eric.

Nestled amongst the buildings of a technical college in Antwerp is a F-84F Thunderstreak fighter-bomber. But how did it get there?

The Belgian airforce had around 197 of the American built F-84Fs, and the story goes that this one, serial number FU-36, crash-landed here around 40 years ago. Then, when somebody decided to build a school here - rather than moving the aircraft out of the way - the buildings were built around the plane!

Check out these fantastic HDR photographs of the aircraft.

However, personally I think the story is a little far-fetched. Even if you accepted that the builders wouldn’t just move it out of the way, what’s the chances that Belgium would just abandon one of their fighters?

I searched high and low for mention of FU-36 on the web, and found several conflicting reports of its location and status. Some sites do indeed describe it as “abandonded“, but others describe it as “preserved at a Tech School”.

One site even claims that “this is one of several aircraft that languished on Belgian military airfields” which would imply to me that, at some point, this plane was decommissioned and stored away on an airfield. Perhaps before being donated to the school?

Anyway, enough of this “investigative journalism” - the crash-landing story is way more fun!

Thanks: asfaltkonijn via Timdc

I strongly suggest you download the latest beta version of Google Earth which has, amongst other improvements, Google Sky.

Head to the View menu and select “Switch to sky” to turn your view upside down and start Sightseeing amongst the stars.

Ogle Earth has the full scoop on all the new features.