Dean’s Blue Hole is a spectacular underwater sinkhole situated in a bay on Long Island in the Bahamas, which as well as being perhaps the finest example of these incredibly beautiful geological features, also has the distinction of being the world’s deepest blue hole.

Although relatively small in initial diameter at around 35 metres (115 ft), where Dean’s Blue Hole is unique is in its depth – at 202 metres (663 ft) it descends nearly twice as far as any other known blue hole.

Due to the unique geology of the Bahamas, there are dozens of smaller water-filled caves to be found, many of which are accessible to divers who wish to explore the cave systems they reveal.

Sawmill Sink, where numerous pre-human fossilised remains have been discovered.

Other blue holes have been found all over the world, such as the second deepest – the 130 metre (360 ft) Blue Hole on the coast of the Red Sea, which due to having claimed the lives of between 40 and 80 divers is known as “the World’s Most Dangerous Dive Site”.

The largest known entrance to a Blue hole is that of the Great Blue Hole in Belize, which is some 300 metres across.

There are (of course) water-filled sinkholes far deeper even than Dean’s Blue Hole, such as El Zacatón in Mexico (335m / 1,099 ft) and Pozzo del Merro in Italy (392m / 1,286 ft), but without the spectacular visual contrast between deep and shallow water of a true blue hole, from our aerial viewpoint they seem far less impressive.

There’s more info about blue holes at Wikipedia and the Wondermondo site has an impressive amount of sinkhole information.

Do you know of any other blue holes we should mention? Post a comment with a link!

Locations: Belize, Egypt, Italy, Mexico, The Bahamas /

View in Google Earth

Most meteors that arrive at Earth burn up in the atmosphere, and others are washed away by our moving surface and erosion. Regardless, if you know where to look, you might be surprised how many impact craters you can find. As with part one of this series. we’re going to look at some of the most visible:

Clearwater Lakes, Canada – These two lakes were formed simultaneously from a meteor that broke apart in our atmosphere and crashed into the surface over 290 million years ago. The largest of the lakes is over 20 miles (32 km) across! As you can guess by their name, both are known for their remarkably clear water.

Bosumtwi, Ghana – This nearly perfect circular crater is Ghana’s only natural lake. Carved out of crystalline bedrock found in the West African Shield, Lake Bosumtwi was formed over 1.3 million years ago. The crater is an impressive 6 miles (10.5 km) across.

Deep Bay, Canada – Another striking circular crater, this lake in Saskatchewan, Canada was formed around 100 million years ago by a very large meteorite. The impact left a hole 8 miles (13 km) wide that over time filled with water from nearby Reindeer Lake.

Wolfe Creek, Australia – This relatively young and small crater has been preserved in the arid desert of northern Australia. It’s partially buried under the continuous streams of sand that blows through the region. Estimated to be a mere 300,000 years old, this crater is less than a kilometer wide and was only discovered by scientists in 1947.

Aorounga Crater, Chad – Yet another crater somewhat preserved by a desert landscape, the Aorounga Crater in Africa is almost 8 miles (12.9 km) wide. But when the area was scanned by Space Shuttle SIR-C radar, images revealed two more rings of similar size (possibly 2 more craters) to the east of the visible crater. If all of these craters were formed at once, scientists believe the meteor could have been anywhere from a half-mile to full mile across!

Southwest Egypt – This crater is one of the most recent discoveries by scientists using new tools like Google Earth. Found using satellite images in 2008, this small crater in the deserts of southwestern Egypt is only 45 meters wide and perhaps a few thousand years old. It makes you wonder if the Egyptians knew anything about it!

Be sure to check out Part 1 in this series touring Earth’s impact craters.

Locations: Australia, Chad, Egypt, Ghana, Quebec, Saskatchewan / Categories: Deserts, Natural Landmarks

View in Google Earth

The narrow width of the canal means that ships can only travel in one direction at a time, with convoys of many vessels travelling together north or south, with pauses along the way to allow traffic to pass in the other direction. Google’s images have mostly captured boats travelling north, so that’s the direction we’ll travel on our tour.

Ships at the northern tip of the Red Sea enter the waterway at Port Tawfik, in the city of Suez which gives the canal its name.

Unlike many canals, the Suez has no locks, because there is only around a 1m difference in between the two seas, meaning the natural flow of water is not dangerous to shipping.

Within a few kilometres boats pass beneath the first of a very small number of connections across the canal – the overhead power line crossing. A pair of 221m tall towers provide the necessary clearance for large freighters.

Historians believe that canals were constructed in this region – in particular connecting the Red Sea to the Nile – as long ago as the second millennium BC, with ancient maps and stories from the intervening years giving hints of efforts which had varying levels of success. Napoleon proposed a canal but abandoned the scheme after receiving incorrect maps showing a 10m height difference between the seas.

Construction of the existing canal took ten years before officially opening on November 17th, 1869.

A little further north we reach the Ahmed Hamdi Tunnel which carries vehicles travelling between Suez and the Sinai Peninsula.

Shortly after this, boats enter the first of three lakes along the route – Little Bitter Lake. The dredged channel is clearly visible on the satellite images.

Great Bitter Lake is one of the points where ship convoys anchor to await the passage of boats going in the other direction, and it is plenty wide enough to accommodate passing ships.

There is also some kind of barge or platform and a boat towing a number of containers – does anybody have any idea what is going on here? It appears to be connected to this strange area of landforms – perhaps where sediment dredged from the channel is dumped?

Just to the north of the lake a pair of tunnels carry fresh water beneath the Canal, which is naturally very salty.

Lake Timsah and the town of Ismailia are notable landmarks along the way. On the eastern bank of the lake is a large memorial for Egyptian soldiers lost in the Yom Kippur War in 1973. There have been several other conflicts surrounding the canal, including the Suez Crisis in 1956, and 1967′s Six Day War.

Exiting the lake we can see an interesting wake pattern caused by a large container ship. To limit shoreline erosion caused by wakes, speed in the canal is limited to 8 knots. Ships up to 40m wide can use the waterway, with a maximum draught of 19m.

If necessary cargo can be offloaded onto smaller boats to help reduce draught for the passage, which is made by over 20,000 ships every year. This is about 7.5% of global sea trade, and around two-thirds of the oil consumed in Europe transits through the canal.

Traffic of a different kind crosses the canal on the El Ferdan Railway Bridge, the longest swing span bridge in the world. It splits in the middle, with the two halves rotating open to allow large vessels to pass.

Beyond the bridge is the Billah Bypass which again allows vessels to pause while convoys pass in the opposite direction.

And continuing north brings us to the final road crossing and the beautiful shadow of the Suez Canal Bridge¹ which has a 70m span for ships to pass beneath. The towers holding the cables were designed to resemble obelisks.

Finally, we reach the Mediterranean at Port Said, where there is a container terminal. Brand new high-res imagery of the area shows quite a number of different vessels being loaded or unloaded, along with a quite lovely reflection of the sun on intersecting wakes from a pair of small boats.

Wikipedia has plenty of information about the Suez Canal, including more history than I could include here. The Authority which operates the canal has a website, but it is always incredibly slow to load for me.

Thanks to pt, Michael hancock, Jonathan and Zack Stokes.

Locations: Egypt / Categories: Bridges, Monuments, Shadows, Structures, Watercraft

View in Google Earth

The distinctly non-triangular Bir Tawil Triangle is an area on the border between Egypt and Sudan, unclaimed by either nation, and identified by the dotted border lines in Google Maps.

Given that this is pretty much just 2,000 km² of sand and rocks, it’s perhaps not surprising that neither country is particularly attracted to it, but what causes it to be so undesirable? The secret lies in the continuation of the dotted border lines to the east and north-east, which encompass a much larger area (almost 6,500 km²) known as the Hala’ib Triangle², though it is only vaguely more triangular in shape than Bir Tawil.

Note that the border to the west of the Bir Tawil Triangle is shown as a solid line. This is 22° latitude, the political border between Egypt and Sudan as defined in 1899. Egypt claims that this border should run all the way to the Red Sea, giving it control of the Hala’ib Triangle, while Sudan would get the smaller Bir Tawil Triangle.

Sudan, on the other hand, prefers the more complicated administrative border established in 1902 which would reverse the ownership of these two parcels of land. This boundary was originally established because tribes in the Bir Tawil area were of Egyptian origin, while those in the Hala’ib area were of Sudanese descent, including those in the town of Hala’ib, the only settlement of any size in the area.

Essentially, neither country claims the smaller Bir Tawil Triangle as it would mean losing control of the larger Hala’ib Triangle, the access it has to the Red Sea, and potential oil fields. In a no-doubt complicated and tense situation, Egypt has administered the larger area since 1990, but Sudan kept armed forces there until 2000, and continues to claim the area even after their withdrawal.

This has resulted in a border post on the 22° latitude border where it is crossed by a major road, but none where that road crosses the other border further north.

The Bir Tawil Triangle has no roads, but the high-res images show that at least some vehicles pass through, with tire tracks clearly visible in the sand – these appear to be areas where water gathers, with trees growing sporadically, so may be the ‘Water Well’ from which the area is named.

More information at Strange Maps.

Locations: Egypt, Sudan / Categories: Deserts, Weirdness

View in Google Earth

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.

Locations: Egypt / Categories: Monuments, Structures

View in Google Earth

What on earth is the purpose of this massive spiral in the Egyptian desert?

It appears to be made from near-perfect circles scooped from the sand, which decrease in size toward the centre of the spiral – where there is a much larger circular trench.

Whatever the spiral’s purpose actually is, it must have taken a serious amount of effort to put here.

Thanks to BZoltan

Locations: Egypt / Categories: Deserts, Weirdness

View in Google Earth

We thought this was such a blatant (and totally lame) rip-off of our own Face of Jesus Found in Sand Dune that we’d better up the ante!²

First in Utah, we find a terrifying looking skull face…

Then in Nevada, we’ve got a Blues Brothers style one-eyed alien…

And finally in Kenya we’ve got… the Rock Eater Biter from the NeverEnding Story!

How long before the Metro steals this story I wonder?

See our other related posts for even more Google Earth Pareidolia:

• Irish Rock Face
• Face of Santa Claus
• Native American Listening to an iPod
• The Face of Mother Earth
• The Simian Messiah
• Face of Jesus Found in Sand Dune

Thanks to Jayden Brown, Vaughn Nelson and cruzito.

Locations: Egypt, Kenya, Nevada, Utah / Categories: Natural Landmarks, Weirdness

View in Google Earth

Here’s a small private plane-shaped pool in Miami.

This is the Flying W Airport in New Jersey, where they have a cool plane-shaped pool with “W”s on the wings. Flying W is described as a “flying airport resort“, and whilst I’m not sure exactly what that is, there’s definitely real planes parked right next to the pool. Very odd.

Over in Cairo, Egypt, they’ve taken a quite different approach and illustrated a fighter jet on the bottom of this circular pool, which also features a very large bird of prey. Do these insignia hold some sort of significance I wonder?

Finally, in China, they’ve dispensed with swimming pools, a built an entire lake in the shape of a plane! This is right next to a decent sized airport, so maybe this is a hotel.

Whilst swimming here might not be very pleasant, if you look closely you’ll see that instead, you might be able to take a boat trip in this plane!

Thanks to 93f2, Felippo, Majoska and kjfitz.

Locations: China, Egypt, Florida, New Jersey / Categories: Aircraft, Stadiums and Sport

View in Google Earth

Maybe this is actually the world’s largest manhole cover!

Thanks to Hide Kuwa

Locations: Egypt / Categories: Shadows, Weirdness

View in Google Earth

The problem with finding oil platforms on Google Maps is that most of the open sea isn’t available on the higher zoom levels. Probably because there isn’t really much out there to see, and it saves Google storing multiple images of lots of boring water. Thankfully near the coast or in the smaller in-land seas and channels some oil platforms have been captured.

Our first platform is in the Gulf Of Mexico about a hundred klicks east of New Orleans. A bit closer to the coast is another and just north is what looks to be a tug pushing a line of barges.

Another one in the Gulf of Mexico, but this one is off the coast of Texas and has a very obvious helipad.

Around the other side of the US off the west coast, south of Santa Barbara is another oil field full of activity. There are two platforms that look to be in the process of being supplied by ships. There are actually four platforms all in a line here, you can see the other two off to the east.

South down the coast and out to sea from Los Angeles harbour are these two big beasties with a walkway linking them.

Way over in the Gulf of Suez which divides Africa and Asia is the Gemsa oil field which is absolutely chock full of platforms. These ones seem to be a lot bigger than the ones in the US, this one is made up of multiple platforms and landing pads, all linked together by walkways. If you zoom out a few clicks there are about five other platforms just as big.

In a bay on the west coast of South Africa is a particularly chunky looking platform that just sneaks into the high resolution coverage.

In our ongoing quest for the largest, tallest, biggest stuff in the world I couldn’t have mentioned oil platforms without including the mighty 43,000 ton Petronis Platform, the tallest free-standing structure in the world (when including underwater structures). Unfortunately I couldn’t find it on Google Maps and I suspect it falls outside the high resolution coverages areas. If anyone can track it down though, leave a comment.

Locations: Egypt, South Africa, U.S. States / Categories: Structures, Watercraft

View in Google Earth