Unless you’ve been living on the, er, Moon, you can hardly have failed to notice that today¹ marks the 40th anniversary of the historic landing of the Apollo 11 mission – during which, Neil Armstrong became the first human being to ever set foot on the Moon.

Apollo 11 was launched on a Saturn V rocket at 9:32 AM on July 16, 1969 from Launch Complex 39-A at Cape Canaveral in Florida. The same pad is also used for Space Shuttle launches, including the recent launch of Endeavour. Apparently, when a fully fuelled rocket is on the pad, the minimum safe distance for people is 5km! However, on the day that the Street View car visited it did get close enough to get a distant view of the launch tower rising above the swampland.

At the nearby Kennedy Space Center we can see a replica Space Shuttle, as well as the Rocket Garden (a display of Redstone, Titan and Atlas rockets) and the Space Mirror (or at least its shadow) – a 13-metre high memorial to those who have lost their lives in space.

Over at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, the Saturn V rocket that we looked at four years ago is now under cover unfortunately. Still, at least we can gaze down on the very building in which the brainy Mission Control folks kept things running smoothly.

Of course Houston wasn’t the only place keeping tabs on the astronauts. As anyone who has seen the movie The Dish will know, at the time Neil Armstrong stepped onto the moon, it was on the “wrong” side of the Earth; which meant the historic TV signal was actually relayed via Australia.

The best pictures came from the Parkes Observatory in New South Wales, but the signal was also picked up at Honeysuckle Creek Tracking Station near Canberra. Sadly, Parkes is only visible in low-resolution (although you can glimpse the dish through the trees on Street View), and Honeysuckle Creek, while in high-res, was closed in 1981 and subsequently demolished.

And what of the first man on the moon? Neil Armstrong was born in the small town of Wapakoneta, Ohio, and during his school years his family lived here on West Benton Street. The town is obviously proud of its famous son: in the vicinity we can find roads named Neil Armstrong Drive, Lunar Drive, Gemini Drive, Saturn Drive and Apollo Drive – the latter four located near the Armstrong Air & Space Museum, where exhibits apparently include the Gemini VIII spacecraft, Apollo 11 artefacts, a moon rock, and “multimedia presentations of the sights and sounds of space”².

Finally, let’s have a look at the moon itself! Google Moon has come on a bit since it was unveiled on the landing’s 36th anniversary, meaning you can even look around in Street View-esque panorama mode at the landing sites. And, in case you haven’t heard, NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter recently managed to photograph 5 out of the 6 Apollo landing sites, with sufficient detail that you can make out the lunar module descent stages, and even, in one case, the trails of footprints left by the astronauts! Google has some way to go to match that sort of resolution, but as it happens, they are holding a special Google Earth news conference later today…

There’s more to see on our previous coverage of Cape Canaveral and the Kennedy Space Center, you can watch a real-time recreation of the landing at We Choose The Moon and join in with various celebratory events at NASA’s site.

The world of gargantuan statuary has changed considerably since we published the original Very Large Buddhas post just over 3 years ago. The title of world’s largest statue is now held by the Spring Temple Buddha in Henan, China.

The statue alone is 128m tall, and it stands on a 20m tall lotus throne, which in turn stands on a 25m tall pedestal – giving the structure a total height of 153m.

The statue – including the lotus throne – is 128m tall. Its original 25m tall pedestal gave the structure a total height of 153m. However, recent information shows that the hill it was built on has been constructed into an additional pedestal. The total height is now believed to be 208m. Panoramio has several pictures, and this image in particular gives you a sense of just how immense this monument is (and shows the new pedestal under construction.)

Little is known about the Spring Temple Buddha in the West, so it likely wasn’t listed on Wikipedia when Alex wrote the original post. It was constructed in 2002 in response to Taliban bombing of Buddha statues in Afghanistan, as well as to thwart Indian plans to create the world’s largest statue.  I haven’t been able to find any vital statistics about it, but this image seems to show that the toes alone are close to 2m high.

The world’s second largest statue is the Laykyun Setkyar in Myanmar, which is so new (completed in 2008) that we only see it partially constructed on Google Maps.

At 116m on a 13.5m pedestal it is barely taller in total than the Spring Temple statue alone. Panoramio has a few pictures of the completed structure, which also show that it is, interestingly, located near a reclining Buddha which, at 90m in length, would probably be the world’s 9th tallest statue if it was upright.

As it is also located in a somewhat secretive country, detailed statistics are similarly hard to find. The regime consistently claims it is the world’s largest though, despite evidence to the contrary.

The world’s third largest statue is Ushiku Daibutsu in Japan. It was featured in the original Very Large Buddhas post, though there is new imagery that shows it in greater detail.

Thanks to Lukasz for the link to the reclining Buddha, and to Alex for letting me update his original post.

Standing prominent above Old Istanbul and its waterfront, Topkapi Palace is an immense¹ structure with a long and regal history – from its role as the centre of the Ottoman Empire, to its current operation as a museum housing sacred Muslim relics.

Initially constructed in the mid-15th century and expanded in subsequent centuries by different rulers, the palace is centred on four principal courtyards which are divided by high walls intended to ensure the privacy of those inside. The courtyards are surrounded by hundreds of buildings, beyond which are gardens and wooded areas and walls separating it from the bustling city.

At the height of their power, the Ottoman Sultans based all their official, political and ceremonial activities at the Palace. They housed up to 4,000 people in the complex, which was a self-contained city with all necessary facilities such as mosques, schools, a hospital and even a mint. The palace is reached via a processional avenue and the huge Imperial Gate adjacent to the Hagia Sofia mosque.

The first courtyard is the southernmost and largest of the four, and served mainly as parkland for the general population of the Palace and as a functional area for facilities like the mint. It also houses the Hagia Irene Orthodox Church. The fountain here is believed to have been used by executioners to clean their hands and weapons after an execution.

The parade route through this area leads directly to the Salutation Gate, entrance to the second courtyard. Visitors had to dismount their horses here, as only Sultans were permitted to proceed while riding.

The second courtyard was where Sultans would receive most guests and hold public audiences. It contained more lavish parkland for senior members of the court, and was surrounded by important buildings such as the Imperial Council, a harem, dormitories for servants, and stables where royal carriages are still present.

The ten domed kitchen buildings are clearly visible with their chimneys standing proud above spaces where up to a thousand people would work to create up to 6,000 meals a day in specialised facilities such as the confectionery and beverage kitchens.

The Tower of Justice is the high point of the complex – intended to serve as a reminder for all who could see it of the power of the Sultan, who would use it as a place to oversee his city. Nearby is the Treasury which housed most public administrative functions of the city.

The Gate of Felicity leads to the lush third courtyard which was the private quarters of the Sultan – a place where nobody could enter without his express permission. Private audiences (such as with visiting ambassadors) took place in the throne room just inside the gate. Personal guards and staff of the Sultans lived in this area. The Conquerors Pavilion and Imperial Treasury mostly housed art, money and other valued possessions. The Mosque of the Agas is the largest mosque in the Palace.

The Privy Chamber was constructed as offices, but now houses several items considered to be the most sacred Muslim relics – a cloak and weapons which belonged to the Prophet Muhammed, along with one of his teeth and a hair from his beard. These items form a destination of pilgrimage for many people.

The third courtyard also leads to the harem which had more than 400 rooms to house the sultan’s families in addition to their wives and concubines.

The fourth courtyard was strictly a private refuge for Sultans and their families, along with principal staff such as the Chief Physician. It includes sections specifically for rituals such as evening meals during Ramadan, and circumcision.

By the late 17th century, the Sultans had mostly relocated to more modern palaces elsewhere in the city. Sections of the Topkapi were lost to redevelopment, particularly along the waterfront where a railway was built in the 19th century. When the Ottoman Empire ended early in the 20th century, the Turkish government ordered its conversion into a museum.

While only a modest selection of the hundreds of rooms are open to the public, the architecture is splendid and there is a rich collection of Ottoman treasures, manuscripts and other objects in addition to the Muslim relics mentioned above.

A full in-depth description of Topkapi Palace can be found at Wikipedia. It can be helpful to compare the satellite images to the maps of the Palace, and the Harem. Finally, virtual tours at 360tr (tour one, tour two) give an excellent sense of the grandeur of the Palace.

Thanks to Ray hollis and Sench.

After the Pyramids of Giza, Egypt’s next most visited historical site is the Karnak temple complex just outside Luxor.

Karnak was constructed over a period of 1300 years by approximately 30 different pharaohs, and eventually grew to become a collection of 25 temples. Known in ancient times as Ipet-isut, ‘The most select of places’, it is the largest ancient religious site in the world.

At the south west of the complex is the Precinct of Mut, an enclosed area which is not open to tourists, as it’s currently being restored. It contains the temples of Ramesses III, Khonspekhrod, and of course Mut herself, as well as a large crescent-shaped lake.

Leading north east from the Precinct of Mut is a 400m long avenue of ram-headed sphinxes, which leads directly to the Precinct of Amun-Re.

At 250,000 sq m, the Precinct of Amun-Re is by far the largest area at Karnak, and is the only area that is open to the general public. Amun-Re is dedicated to the Egyptian God Amun, who was the focus of the most complex theology in Ancient Egypt, and the huge scale of the complex here stands as testament to that.

The Ninth Pylon, and The Sacred Lake of the Precinct of Amun-Re

The main attraction here however is actually the entrance to the Temple of Amun, The Great Hypostyle Hall. Fortunately for us, the roof no longer exists, which means we can see the famous 16 rows of 134 columns.

122 of the columns are 10 metres tall, and the remaining 12 are a gargantuan 21 metres tall, each with a diameter of over three meters! (Ground-level photo)

Inscriptions of the names of the Pharaohs, as well as reliefs depicting an expansive history, can also be found recorded on the walls of this ancient fossil of humankind’s past.

For more information, be sure to check out the Karnak page at Wikipedia, which has links to a wealth of information about each of the sights we’ve seen today.

This enormous hexagon, a mile and a half in diameter, looks like some kind of massive occult symbol etched in the scrub on the remote western coast of Australia, 700 miles north of Perth.

In fact, we’re looking at a communication station that transmits on the very low frequency (VLF) radio waveband to vessels of the US and Australian navies.

The facility, opened in 1967, consists of 13 guyed steel radio masts: one at the centre, and one at each corner of the inner and outer hexagons. (Street View gives a dizzying perspective from the base of one of them.) The central tower, known as Tower Zero, is 1,273 feet tall¹, meaning that for the first nine years of its life it was the tallest structure in the southern hemisphere.²

Initially, the station was operated solely by the US Navy, and the nearby town of Exmouth was built to service it and house servicemen’s families. For the first year of its operation, it was known as US Naval Communication Station North West Cape, after the promontory where it is located, but it was renamed in honour of the Australian prime minister who disappeared while swimming off a beach in Victoria³.

From 1975 the site was jointly run by the American and Australian navies, but in 1992 US personnel were withdrawn, and by 2002 the last Australian naval staff had left and operations were taken over by Boeing Australia.

Today, tourism seems to have a more important role in the life of Exmouth: visitors can tour public areas of the base, as well as exploring the gorges of the Cape Range National Park and snorkelling with manta rays and whale sharks in Ningaloo Marine Park.

The communication station still attracts controversy, however. Over the past few years, at least five aircraft have developed problems with their ADIRUs (instruments that supply the control systems with vital flight data) while in the general vicinity of the base. The most serious incident occurred last year, when more than 100 people on board Qantas flight 72 were injured when the plane went into a sharp dive.

Could the extremely powerful radio signals from the masts possibly cause interference? Some people think so, and the Australian Transport Safety Bureau has been looking into a possible link, but the official word is that transmissions from the base are “highly unlikely” to be responsible. That probably won’t keep the conspiracy theorists quiet, though…

Read more about the communications station at Wikipedia and the Shire of Exmouth site.