It’s been a little while since we looked at mazes here on Google Sightseeing, so here’s a collection of some of the latest finds.

While there are several claims to be the world’s largest maze, the most legitimate seems to be the Peace Maze, in Northern Ireland – which is officially recognised by the Guinness book as the largest permanent hedge maze in the world.

The path of the Peace Maze is 3.15 kilometres (2 miles) long, and contains many features symbolic of The Troubles; most notably a divide which has to be crossed to get to the end.

There are many non-permanent mazes, often created from corn or other plants. This one outside York claimed to be the largest when it opened with a Star Trek theme in 2006, but in the current view it is somewhat smaller.

At Temple Hall Farm Regional Park near Leesville, Virginia, there’s a maze celebrating 100 years of flight.

Across the country near Olympia, Washington, a TV fan has clearly paid homage to his favourite series by creating this CSI themed maze.

Back in England, we have a Monster Maze at Noah’s Ark Zoo Farm in North Somerset. Like many maze owners, the people in charge here make grand claims about their maze’s importance – but in truth this is just one of many attractions that claim to be the world’s longest hedge maze.

Finally here in Conholt Park, Wiltshire, we find what might be the most bizarrely shaped maze ever – a giant foot! (Perhaps this is related to the World’s Largest Fingerprint?)

See our Maze category for loads more interesting mazes!

Thanks to Marc Armstrong, DJ Swammi, Kel, Jim Culp, john and Chris Branagan.

Tarbela Dam, found on the Indus River in Northern Pakistan, is the largest earth-filled dam in the world.

The dam was completed in 1976 as the result of a water-rights agreement between India and Pakistan. It is 143m high and almost 3km wide, for a total volume of 106million cubic metres of rocks and earth, making it one of the world’s largest man-made structures.

It holds back a reservoir almost 100km long, though the capacity of the lake has been reduced by silt deposits, just one of many problems encountered by the dam’s builders and operators.

The water is vital to irrigation for farms in the area and power stations at the dam provide a significant portion of Pakistan’s hydro-electric power (caution, vibrant text and background colour!)

Zooming in shows us that it also makes the perfect backdrop for a large religious pronouncement, with Arabic and English text from the Koran reading And HE hath made the rivers for service unto you.

Thanks to Rashid and Syed for pointing us to the first Google Sightseeing entry from Pakistan. This was also our first ‘large type’ from the Koran, though we have had advice to read the Bible and of course, many dams.

Continuing our exploration of World’s Largest trivia – in Cleveland, Ohio we find the World’s Largest Rubber Stamp.

The Free Stamp – a pop art sculpture created by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen quickly became the centre of controversy. It was originally commissioned by Standard Oil of Ohio, but an ownership change and fears of a public backlash in an economically struggling city meant construction was halted. The components were kept in storage for a number of years.

It was finally put on public display in Willard Park in the early 1990s, when BP America agreed to donate it to the city but pay for the maintenance. The stamp is 8m tall and almost 15m long, its bulk clearly apparent on Street View.

Unfortunately, it appears that the current economic climate has also had an impact on the location.

Now if only we can track down the world’s largest inkpad …

Thanks to Rich Holmes and Keith.

Google Sightseeing has previously featured a number of works by the same artist: Saw, Sawing, Dropped Cone, and Spoonbridge and Cherry.

When this stunningly huge estate in Alabama was being designed, the owner must have anticipated the rise of Google Earth, because from down there it must be impossible to appreciate that the grounds have been landscaped into the shape of a gigantic guitar.

With a driveway lined with trees casting shadows to portray the frets on the guitar neck, terraced gardens shaped like the body of a guitar, and a main residence larger than many shopping malls, one could easily imagine this being the country hideaway of somebody living off the proceeds of a few number one albums.

However, it wasn’t dreamt up by some megalomaniac rock star on an acid trip, but rather by the former COO of a scandal-plagued healthcare company. Because of his financial problems, Larry House was forced to sell the property in 2003 at a considerable loss, before construction was even finished.

Let’s look at the numbers:

• An estimated $26 million to build the estate;
• 4,645 square metres (50,000 square feet) of living space;
• 27 acres of land;
• 21 bedrooms and 22 bathrooms;
• a 13-car garage;
• a 25-seat home theatre;
• a wine cellar for 2,000 bottles;
• and despite the cost of construction and contents (including many antiques), it sold at auction for just under $4million.

A gallery of the buildings and grounds can be found here, and if this is too lavish for your budget, you could just go with a guitar shaped pool, as previously featured on Google Sightseeing.

Even if you’ve been living under a rock on the other side of the globe with your eyes and ears taped up, you’ll still be aware that today America goes to the polls and, unless some sort of mass voting machine breakdown occurs, Barack Obama will very likely be voted the next president of the United States.

Although it seems this election has been in the news for the last four years, there’s little mention of Obama or McCain on the images of Google Earth. However, we can find messages to the skies about the soon-to-be ex-President.

Underneath the approach to McCarran International Airport, someone has scrawled a message on the roof urging you to “Vote Bush” which, luckily, America is prevented from doing this time around.

In contrast, we find a “No W” logo in Lakewood Park, Massachusetts. It’s possible that this person is simply expressing their hate for the twenty-third letter of the alphabet, but the symbol is more commonly used to protest against George W Bush.

Whoever you prefer, we urge our American readers to stop messing about on the internet and go and vote.

Thanks to Brian LaPointe & SpiderX22