This is the Aqueduct of Segovia, which was probably built during the second half of the 1st Century AD, and is one of the most significant and best-preserved Roman monuments in Spain.

Technically, this is just the bridge part of a much longer aqueduct which carries water to Segovia from 17 kilometres away. It is only when the aqueduct crosses Segovia’s Plaza Azoguejo that it really becomes a sight to behold. This ancient engineering masterpiece is comprised of 167 arches reaching up to 28.5 metres!

Some of the height is obvious in the Google Image thanks to the fantastic shadow, but here’s some ground level photos that give you a good sense of scale, and here’s another that conveys how incredibly old this structure is.

Thanks to Ignacio Sanz.

Here we see the Paris Fire Brigade in action- they’ve blocked off this road and are completing what can only be a daring rescue of a cat from a rooftop (well, do you seen any smoke from a fire)?

Rue de Lafayette, where this action is taking place, is a one-way street, so the local police department (the “Prefecture of Police“) only needed to block the road at one end.

But a lost cat isn’t the only reason for the Parisian police to close streets – a connecting lane behind the US Embassy has also been blocked at both ends.

Submitter DDA reckons this could be during a heightened state of security alert, France’s “Vigipirate“. Which, I was disappointed to discover, has nothing to do with vigilante pirates, but instead is a threat level indicator similar to the homeland security levels in the US.

However, where the American threat levels go from predictable green (safe) to red (danger) the French system skips out green to start at yellow, running up to red (danger) and then scarlet (even more danger)!

The increased security at the embassy could mean that when this picture was taken the French government had stepped it up to red level.

Thanks to DDA to Fred.

In this Google image of a farm just north of Gatwick Airport, England, we can see a large, but not particularly unusual looking stack of hay bales, covered in blue tarpaulins.

If however we look at the Microsoft Live Local Bird’s Eye view of the same location, we can see that the hay bales have been removed to reveal… a Mock Tudor Castle!

So where did this mini-castle spring from?

It was actually built by local farmer Robert Fidler, who also hid it under the enormous haystack. He chose to reveal the building in August 2006 because as 4 years had passed with no objections to the structure, it would no longer require planning permission! His family had actually been living in the castle for the four year period – staring out the windows at the inside of hay bales.

However Reigate and Banstead Council claim that as nobody had ever actually seen the castle, then the four-year period was void – meaning that Mr Fidler now faces having his little castle torn down.

Read an interview and more background at thisislondon.co.uk.

Thanks to mlc1us.

North of the Chinese city of Hangzhou, a brand new housing development is taking shape in an unusual style. At least unusual for China anyway, as Tianducheng is designed to look like Paris, France! There are currently just 2000 residents living in the development, but its eventual capacity will be around 100,000.

Hoping to bring the ‘European Lifestyle’ to China’s growing number of wealthy residents, the 31 km² development features several reproductions of famous Parisian landmarks, including the Eiffel Tower and Arc de Triomphe. At 108 metres, Tianducheng’s Eiffel Tower is the second largest replica of the Eiffel Tower in the world¹ – roughly one third the height of its Parisian namesake.

The development has large landscaped gardens containing several ornate fountains, and from the few photographs of the development available online it would seem likely that in the next thumbnail you can see the Bassin de Latone, which is a copy of the one in the Palace of Versailles’ garden.

As we have seen, there are replicas of specific landmarks here, although much of the design seems to be an amalgam of Parisian architectual styles, so it’s really interesting to compare the two. This video shows just how much work has gone into Tianducheng, and Reuters has a great photo slideshow.

Finally, it should be pointed out that Tianducheng is not the only such European-style development – in Shanghai they’re also building Thames Town (only partial high-resolution), which is modelled on a typical English town, and apparently Italian and German versions are planned elsewhere too!

Thanks to GEforumprofr at the Google Earth Community.

Read this article in Italian

To celebrate International Mother Language Day¹ Google Sightseeing has some really big news – today, for the first time we’re launching Google Sightseeing in a foreign language! Not only that but we’re launching two at the same time – French and Italian!

Google Sightseeing Français will be translated by Julien Gremillot, a 30 year old software engineer originally from Paris, who now lives near Nantes, and who has had a passion for satellite sightseeing ever since Google Maps introduced satellite imagery nearly 3 years ago.

Google Sightseeing Italiano will be translated by Alexei Popov who lives and works in Rome. Although Alexei is originally from St. Petersburg, he has made Italy his permanent home after falling in love with it on his first visit. He loves to travel and says his horizons have expanded incredibly since discovering GSS.

Julien and Alexei will be translating all the best posts from the English language GSS for their own languages, as well as posting some of their own language specific stuff as well!

We’ve still got a bit of tweaking to do, so if you find a problem with functionality or appearance leave a comment here (in English please) and we’ll try and fix it.

If you have a comment about the French or Italian posts then feel free to comment in those languages and our translators will handle your queries.

Of course, we want Google Sightseeing to be available to all, so we aim to expand with more languages in the future. If you are fluent in another language and would like to have your own Google Sightseeing blog then please get in touch.