Natural Landmarks

Sastrugi

Believe it or not, here’s something else to see in Antarctica! They are snow and ice dunes known as ‘sastrugi’, and are formed on a snow surface by wind erosion and deposition. They differ from sand dunes in that the…

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Wednesday, 27th July 2005

The Salton Sea

This is the Salton Sea an inland ‘man-made’ salt-lake, located in Southern California. It usually covers a surface area of 974 square kilometres (although it varies a lot), making it the largest lake in California. It was formed in 1905…

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Tuesday, 26th July 2005

Satsuma-Iwojima

Here is a great shot of Miyakejima Satsuma-Iwojima Island off the coast of Japan. It is volcanic in origin and the big volcano is Mount Oyama. This has erupted several times in recent history. A lava flow in 1940 killed…

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Monday, 25th July 2005

Montmorency Falls

At 83 metres high, the Montmorency Falls in Quebec are 30 metres higher than Niagara Falls. Apparently there are staircases that allow visitors to observe the falls from different vantage points… Not our vantage point though! The falls look absolutely…

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Monday, 25th July 2005

The Moon

To celebrate the first Moon landing today (July 20th, 1969) Google have added some NASA moon imagery to the Google Maps interface and created Google Moon. Make sure you zoom right in for a hint at what the moon is…

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Wednesday, 20th July 2005

The Richat Structure

The Richat Structure in central Mauritania is a stunning geological structure 50 kilometres across (Wikipedia entry). Once thought to be an impact crater, it is actually a sedimentary formation that has eroded flat over many eons. Apparently there’s a hotel…

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Tuesday, 19th July 2005

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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