Buildings

Indiana Barn Roof Art

In Indiana, the local farmers have an apparently long tradition of decorating the roofs of their barns with interesting pictures. I haven’t been able to find much information on the historical reasons why they do this, but the steeply angled…

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Thursday, 17th September 2009

Sayano–Shushenskaya

Sayano–Shushenskaya was – until a recent accident – the largest power plant in Russia, and the sixth largest hydroelectric plant in the world. The main feature of the power station is a dam 245 m high and over a kilometre…

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Tuesday, 8th September 2009

Ashgabat Monuments

The city of Ashgabat – capital of Turkmenistan – is dominated by monuments to one man’s megalomania – former President-for-Life Saparmurat Niyazov. Take, for example, the 75m tall Arch of Neutrality, which he subtly topped with a 12m gold-plated statue…

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Thursday, 27th August 2009

Nail Houses

If you happen to live in one of the countries1 in which Pixar has chosen to release their latest movie before now, then you might already have seen their latest 3D rendered movie, Up; in which the protagonist’s home is…

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Friday, 21st August 2009

The Long-Awaited Street View Update of August 09

Yesterday Google finally announced the launch of some fantastic new Street View imagery, covering Portugal, Switzerland and Taiwan. This means we can now use Street View to see some great previously featured sights, such as the current title holder of…

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Wednesday, 19th August 2009

Chinese military weirdness

There aren’t many sights that puzzle us here at Google Sightseeing, but this one has us stumped. In a remote desert area of Gansu province in northern China is this mysterious maze-like pattern. The “streets” are about 20 metres wide,…

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Tuesday, 18th August 2009

Welcome to Google Sightseeing

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. Our team of authors present weird and wonderful sights as suggested by readers.

Could you be one of our authors? We're looking for more freelance writers - please get in touch for more information.

Best of Google Sightseeing

Sivash: The Rotten Sea

Sivash is the shallow system of lagoons that separates Crimea from mainland Ukraine. Home to large-scale salt deposits, Sivash may just contain the most colourful waters to be found in Google Maps, with ponds of blue, beige and organe readily visible.

Robben Island

Robben Island is a prison island off Capetown, South Africa, best known as the jail where Nelson Mandela was incarcerated…

Revisiting Area 51

Whether it’s space aliens, light-speed travelling spaceships, or just some top-secret government testing, the world’s most famous “secret place” has…

Top Ten Northernmost Items on Google Maps

Here at Google Sightseeing, our obsession with superlatives knows no bounds, whether it be the largest, the smallest, the funniest, or the strangest. Join us as we literally go in another direction with our look at ten items that have the right to be called the northernmost such things on Earth!

Top 5 Worst Traffic Cities in the World

Nobody likes traffic. The frequent starts and stops just to roll another few feet can grind away at anyone’s mind.…

World’s Tallest Lighthouses

For centuries lighthouses have served as navigation aids, helping protect marine traffic from running aground on dangerous coastlines, rocks and…

Recent Comments

  1. Ian Brown: Thanks again markus. I’ve updated the post to say that Cape Hatteras is the tallest traditional...
  2. Ian Brown: Oops. You are correct, markus. Thanks for spotting that. I got caught in the confusion / dispute about...
  3. markus: wouldn’t the second tallest lighthouse in the world – located in the US – be the tallest in...
  4. edmonton website development: This is what I was exactly looking for thanks a lot for this.
  5. Ahmed: Are you kidding? Damascus, Cairo, and even Amman are far worse than half this list.

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