Africa

Dead Sperm Whale

The latest imagery update has now arrived on Google Maps, and with it comes this rather sad image of a beached Sperm Whale on the island of Hjelmsøya, which is off the coast of the extreme north of Norway. According…

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Thursday, 18th September 2008

Sand Tornado (Desert Week)

We’re continuing the first annual GSS Desert Week! In time-honoured tradition, we’ll mostly be posting about deserts. For about a week! The Sahara is probably the world’s most famous desert, and covers much of northern Africa. However today we’re only…

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Tuesday, 17th June 2008

The Namib Desert (Desert Week)

Welcome to the first annual GSS Desert Week! In time-honoured tradition, we’ll mostly be posting about deserts. For about a week! The Namib Desert in Namibia and Angola forms part of the Namib-Naukluft National Park, and covers an area of…

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Monday, 16th June 2008

Star Fort Megapost

A star fort or trace italienne is a type of military fortification first introduced in Italy around the mid-fifteenth century. Traditional medieval castles, towers and ring forts had proved extremely vulnerable to increasingly mobile cannons, and star forts were introduced…

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Thursday, 1st May 2008

Animal Tracks

I wonder what kind of animal left these tracks on these salt flats in South Africa? Are there any animal trackers out there who can identify the creatures responsible? Part of the National Geographic African Megaflyover Project, this particular image…

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Friday, 25th April 2008

The Great Mosque of Djenné

Here in the city of Djenné, Mali stands the Great Mosque of Djenné, which is the largest mud brick building in the world. The first mosque was built on this site in the 13th century, but was later demolished, so…

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Tuesday, 18th March 2008

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…

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