There are 21 cities worldwide that have at sometime been nick-named “Athens of the (something)“. However, two of these cities have taken the name even further and built replicas of Athens’ most famous landmark, the Parthenon.

Nashville, Tennessee acquired the nickname “Athens of the South” in the 1850s by the creation of numerous universities and colleges and being the first southern US city to establish a public school system.

So as the centrepiece of the 1897 World’s Fair, Nashville built the World’s only complete, full scale replica of the Parthenon. The building was originally a temporary structure but they liked it so much it was re-built on proper foundations in the 1920s.

Today the Parthenon serves as an art museum and even features plaster-casts of marble sculptures which adorned the original Parthenon (which are presently held in the British Museum).

In the late 1700s many of Edinburgh, Scotland’s public buildings were built in the Greek neo-classical style, giving rise to the nickname “Athens of the North”.

Then, in 1882, construction began on a Parthenon replica named The National Monument as a memorial to those who died in the Napoleonic Wars. You can clearly see that the structure is only half completed, perhaps due to lack of funding, but some say it was an intentional design.

In stark contrast to public feelings of Nashville’s replica, the locals of Edinburgh generally dislike the Parthenon and it has often been described as “Edinburgh’s Disgrace”.

Previously on Google Sightseeing: Ancient Greece.

Wikipedia Links: Parthenon, Nashville and the National Monument, Edinburgh.

Thanks: Taylor Nelson & James Turnbull

Your average portrait painting isn’t very large or, in the case of the Mona Lisa, it’s surprisingly tiny. That said, we have found one or two giant portraits which are viewable from above.

To start, Anne Frank can be seen painted on the playground of Anne-Frank-Realschule, a German Six-form high school.

Still in Germany, we can see a likeness of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart painted in chalk outside Cologne Cathedral. I think someone should head down there and put some money in the guy’s hat.

Our last portrait we have to admit isn’t actually a portrait painting, but may well be a reproduction of one of Picasso’s paintings through the medium of field.

I’ve found suggestion that the original is a portrait of Marie Therese Walter but that might be a red herring, as I can’t find any portraits of her that even resemble the field.

Can anyone do any better?

Thanks: Felippo, sladys, JackW & Jane

Could these be the shadows of one or more dog sleds following old tracks through the snow on Svalbard, the northernmost part of Norway?

Unfortunately these are only medium resolution images¹ (which disappear in Google Maps if you get too close), but zooming right in on Google Earth certainly seems to add weight to the theory.

Perhaps they’re travelling from the nearby EISCAT radar station to the nearest town – the administrative centre of Svalbard, Longyearbyen?

Actually Longyearbyen is interesting too, as it’s the world’s northernmost town² and therefore has the world’s northernmost of quite a few things, including the world’s most northern bank, ATM, hospital, library, night club, bus station, taxi rank, tourist office, supermarket, school and not not forgetting pub!

Oh yeah, they’ve also got the world’s most northern permanent airport with scheduled flights – Svalbard Airport.

See Wikipedia for more on dog sleds, Longyearbyen, Svalbard and the world’s most northern things.

Thanks to Harry.

Like something out of Blazing Saddles, here’s a completely fake city outside of Washington D.C.!

In fact zooming out to see the surrounding area, we can see there’s all sorts of odd things here, including driving courses, underground bunkers, some sort of weird runway / skid track thing, and a helipad complete with helicopter beside what looks like, um.. the front of a rocket?

In actual fact this is the US Secret Service James J. Rowley Training Center which officially comprises around 500 acres of land, six miles of roadway and 31 buildings. Unofficially, it also has an obstacle course, simulated airport, firing range, and several outdoor training and tactical response areas.

The not-very-secret Secret Service website says the facility provides an environment:

that promotes critical thinking and innovation in the areas of physical, site and event security, threat assessments, antiterrorist intelligence techniques, emergency preparedness, criminal investigations, protection of critical financial infrastructure, and management development.

Strangley, on Google Maps there’s nothing of this facility shown at all on the road map – and on our own map page (which uses the Google Maps API data), the facility is marked as an Agricultural Research Center!

And yet despite the secrecy, you can get an ever closer look at the fake city with Live Map’s Bird’s Eye View.

Thanks to Rickard Jensen, kjfitz and ZedNaught.

Welcome to the final day of Google Sightseeing Reader Takeover Week. Every day this week, one of you has been chosen to have their very own sight posted here on GSS, while Alex and James take a well deserved holiday. Today’s final sight is from GSS addict Rob!

Nicknamed “Billionaires Row”, Kensington Palace Gardens, in West London, is home to a collection of the most expensive homes in the World.

For those of you who have just come off the hedge fund management circuit, prices start at around £50 million for the smaller house, although the asking price for 18-19 Kensington Mews was a rather modest £85 million.

Sadly though, the street plays host to embassies and ambassadors residences. However, the Sultan of Brunei, one of the richest men in the World, owns Number 20, with the Number 8 on top – “symbolizing the phrase Ba Shi Fa Cai” (”the number eight brings prosperity”).

The Sultan is in good company though, with the Worlds 5th Richest Man (and Britain’s richest), Steel Magnate, Lakshmi Mittal, living next door. He bought his house from F1 tycoon Bernie Ecclestone for £57 million – starting to see a trend here? The “Taj Mittal” is so called because the marble that is used in the house is the same stuff that made the Taj Mahal.

Britain’s 6th richest man, Leonard Blavatnik, also occupies, rather greedily, 15a AND b! Although he probably deserves it, since it is rather small, and only has a tennis court to show off. He picked his up for a snip at £40,000,000.

Find out more and get a full list of residents at Wikipedia.