In February 2012, Google added Moscow and St. Petersburg to their roster of Street View cities, but the major Russian-language search engine, Yandex, beat them to it by a couple of years. In fact, Yandex likely has the largest repository of street-level imagery outside of Google and Bing with coverage in 150 major Russian, Ukrainian, and Belarusian cities. Here, we can see such sights as the historic museums of Khabarovsk in the far east and historic wooded churches such as this one in the Arctic city of Arkhangelsk.

Of course, if you like good old-fashioned oppressively bleak Soviet-era apartment blocks, you can see plenty of those, too.

Yandex’s coverage also extends into Kazakhstan, where the capital of Astana has seen a massive amount of opulent new construction since it was designated capital in 1997. The sprawling parliament complex, for example, looks pristine. On the opposite end of the capital district, the Khan Shatyr Entertainment Centre was built in 2006 in the form of a giant transparent tent covering a whopping 14 hectares (35 acres).

Yandex also beat Google to the punch in reaching Turkey. Along the Bosporus Bridge in Istanbul, we’re able to see both Europe on the left and Asia on the right.

Speaking of Turkey, the website Dunya360 also provides street-level imagery, but only for the Turkish mountain town of Göynük (population 4,900), known for its steep, narrow cobblestone streets.

Also specialising in single-city imagery is iErbil, the major English-language web portal for Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan. The ultra high-resolution imagery covers numerous locations throughout the city, including the towering statue of the 13th century historian Ibn al-Mustafwi that sits atop city’s historic citadel.

Other major attractions available on iErbil imagery include the 922-year-old Mudhafaria Minaret and the massive gate that welcomes visitors to Shanadar Park (note the tourist tramway in the background).

We end this part of the tour with the Polish site Zumi, which has imagery for the central business district of Poland’s major cities. Among the sights to be seen here are Warsaw’s massive Palace of Culture and Science (the eighth tallest building in the EU) and the sprawling Main Market Square of Krakow. Dating back to the 13th century, it remains the largest mediaeval town square in Europe.

ED: Since this article was submitted just last week, Google have only gone and released imagery in Poland! Insert your own Big Brother joke here.

Locations: Iraq, Kazakhstan, Poland, Russia, Turkey, Ukraine / Categories: Buildings, Monuments, Street Views, Structures

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Thanks to Stephen Johnson and Chris Holland.

Locations: Iraq / Categories: Large Type, Movie Locations

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Whatever happened, given the state of the traffic, I can’t say I’m that surprised… :-/ That isn’t an isolated example eiter – the traffic’s like that all over the place!

Scary stuff.

Locations: Iraq / Categories: Other Vehicles

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Dohuk is located in Iraqi Kurdistan, an autonomous political entity located in Northern Iraq, although Kurdish nationalists call this “South Kurdistan” with “North Kurdistan” being in, uh, Southeast Turkey. I’m confused.

So, despite being technically in Iraq, the people here proudly fly the flag of Kurdistan and painted it on their dam – unlike the Kurdish regions of neighbouring countries Iran, Syria, and Turkey – where flying the flag is a criminal offence.

Thanks: Rawand Nawroly & J. L. Precup

Locations: Iraq / Categories: Structures

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Sadly this distinctive gold dome was destroyed last week by bombers hoping to escalate tension in the area (BBC News Report).

Thanks: Tom & Adam

Locations: Iraq / Categories: Buildings

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Just to the north is the much-further-from-finished, but still worth a peek, Grand Saddam Mosque, which was originally slated for completion in 2015, but which I don’t suppose will ever get built now.

Thanks to woowoowoo and david.

Locations: Iraq / Categories: Buildings, Structures

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The Monument of the Unknown Soldier in Baghdad was dedicated to Iraqis lost in the Iran-Iraq war and supposedly represents a shield falling from the hands of a dying warrior. During the US occupation this was central to the “Green Zone” and used as the army headquarters.

To the west of the monument are the parade grounds. Each end of the parade grounds is marked by gigantic replicas of Saddam’s arms holding swords, constructed partially from the melted down rifles of dead soldiers. Although most would agree that Iraq lost the war with Iran the hands were built to commemorate Iraq’s supposed victory.

The Shaheed Monument was built to commemorate Iraqi soldiers killed in the Iran-Iraq war. The two large blue domes sit in the middle of an artificial lake, with an eternal flame at the centre.

Thanks: Matt, Doug, Keith T., Daniel, Todd Day, Sayf Sharif, Hans Masing, Sig

Locations: Iraq / Categories: Monuments

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They look like oil tankers (at least I don’t think they look like military craft) but I guess that these shipwrecks are a litle different to the ones we usually post. However, they’re still fascinating to look at from up here.

There’s actually loads of these ships lying around in varying states of decay. In fact it’s all a bit creepy…

Thanks to Serge Lyubomudrov, Ian Luria and James.

Locations: Iraq / Categories: Watercraft

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Here at GSS we get a lot of submissions of clouds, but they are mostly pretty unexciting. That said, I really like this shadow formed by a cloud over Munich Airport. Can you (like me) see the footballer, facing east, about to kick the ball? Or, (like submitter Sebas) do you see a traveller, walking east, carrying a handbag in his right hand?

Thanks: Mark Huijser & Sebas

Locations: Germany, Iraq / Categories: Aircraft, Weirdness

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Thanks to Marc Armstrong

Locations: Iraq / Categories: Aircraft, Weirdness

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