Top ten tallest lighthouses

The world’s tallest lighthouse is the 133m (436 ft) Jeddah Light in Saudi Arabia, which doubles as the control tower for this busy commercial port. The white tower and dome can be seen from about 40km away, and it’s a vital marker on this coastline which is dotted with dangerous coral reefs.

The second-tallest lighthouse is technically a monument rather than a true navigational aid, and is unfortunately (for us) located on an island in Lake Erie which is only covered by low-resolution satellite imagery. The 107m (351 ft) tall granite tower has the somewhat unwieldy title of “Perry’s Victory and International Peace Memorial”, and it commemorates a US naval victory over Britain in the War of 1812.

Just one metre shorter is the Yokohama Tower which also stretches the true definition of a lighthouse. While it is illuminated, the tower mainly serves as a tourist attraction with an observation deck and restaurant offering views of the city.

From here on we’re looking at more traditional lighthouses, built solely to serve as beacons for shipping. The fourth tallest lighthouse is found on the island of Île Vierge off the north-west coast of France. Built in the late 1800s, this lighthouse (like many around the world) has today been automated, though in this case a lighthouse keeper still lives on site. Despite the hazy image, Street View from the nearest point on the mainland gives us a good idea of how immense it is.

The Lanterna is one of the most famous landmarks in the Italian port of Genoa, and a lighthouse has stood on this spot since the 12th century.

The existing 77m (253 ft) tall structure dates to the 16th century, though it has been repaired many times following damage from lightning strikes and military action. While it’s visible from many parts of the city, it really needs to be seen from up close to be truly appreciated. There’s also a good museum at its base, though you’ll need to find your way past the busy ramps used by trucks going to and from the port.

Back to France for the sixth tallest lighthouse – the Phare de Gatteville. At 75m (246 ft), the granite tower was the tallest in the world when it was constructed in the 1830s.

The recent launch of Street View imagery in Russia gives us a good look at the seventh tallest lighthouse – the Lesnoy Mole Rear Range Light in the commercial port of St Petersburg. The distinctive red and white stripes of this 73m (240 ft) tall structure also identify it as a range light – a marker to help sea traffic approach a narrow channel.

The eighth and ninth tallest are just a few kilometres apart on Hainan island in China. The Mulantou and Baishamen lighthouses are both 72m (236 ft) tall and mark the narrow strait between the island and the mainland.

Finally, the tenth tallest lighthouse in the world is the Storozhenskiy Light on Russia’s Lake Ladoga, but sadly it isn’t visible on satellite view yet.

Tall lighthouses around the world

The tallest lighthouse in the southern hemisphere is the Recalada a Bahía Blanca Light in Argentina – a 67m (220 ft) tall iron tower allegedly built by the same company that built the Eiffel Tower.

The recently launched Street View imagery in Poland allows us to see the world’s tallest brick lighthouse – the 65m (213 ft) tall Świnoujście Lighthouse.

The tallest lighthouse in the US is the Cape Hatteras Light in North Carolina’s Outer Banks. Originally built in the 1860s, the structure was moved inland several hundred metres in 1999 to protect it from shore erosion. This video shows how it was moved.

The UK’s tallest lighthouse sits on a remote rock called Skerryvore off the west coast of Scotland, and isn’t visible on Google Maps, so instead let’s travel to Africa, where the tallest lighthouse is the Nosy Alañaña Light on the tiny Île aux Prunes off Madagascar.

Locations: Argentina, China, France, Italy, Japan, Madagascar, North Carolina, Ohio, Poland, Russia, Saudi Arabia / Categories: Monuments, Shadows, Street Views, Structures, Towers, Watercraft

View in Google Earth

Fuji has undergone numerous changes and rebuilds since its 1965 opening. The current course has been in place since 2006 and measures 4.563 km (2.835 mi) in length, including the monstrous 1.5 km (0.9 mi) front straight.

The huge straight owes its existence to the original design of the circuit as a giant banked oval track. Only one of the banked corners was ever built, but it is still readily visible today. Banked at 30 degrees on a downhill slope, the corner resulted in so many fatalities that it had to be abandoned in 1974 in favour of a new configuration.

On the opposite side of the circuit is 30R, the tight hairpin at the end of the straight that forces drivers to abruptly slow down from 310 km/h (193 mph). As you can see, the hillside seating area is a bit more rustic than the main grandstand seating area.

Fuji gave up hosting the Japanese Grand Prix after 2008 (the race has returned to Suzuka, another track visited by Street View), but there’s still plenty of racing going at the speedway. In fact, Street View caught pieces of three different racing events during its visit. Below we see Super GT cars being prepared for Friday practice both in the paddock and in the pit lane.

Spectators are already beginning to pour through the turnstiles and trickle into the stands, where they will undoubtedly be bombarded with all sorts of trackside advertising (in fact, they even get hit with it on the road leading into the circuit).

These race fans are early risers, as the pit lane scoring pylon shows us that it’s 7:24 in the morning. Forced perspective allows the pylon to dwarf Mount Fuji in the background.

The main circuit isn’t the only hotbed of racing action at the speedway. In the outer parking lot lie two tracks designed for karting and pocketbike racing. The Street View car gets right into the action, following the drivers around both circuits.

As this motorsport fan knows, racing happens every weekend at Fuji Speedway, but a visit from Street View is so momentous it’s worth a picture on its own!

Locations: Japan / Categories: Crowds, Stadiums and Sport, Street Views

View in Google Earth

The earthquake was recorded as magnitude 9, so powerful that Geophysicists have estimated the main Japanese island of Honshu is now 2.4 metres wider that it was before, and that the Earth itself has shifted slightly on its axis.²

In addition to the unbelievably tragic loss of life, the infrastructure of Japan was severely damaged, several nuclear reactors went into meltdown, and over 125,000 buildings were damaged or completely destroyed.

Failed reactors at the Fukushima I nuclear power plant

In an effort to assist people during the crisis, Google almost immediately launched updated satellite imagery of northeastern Japan, followed by two more rounds of additional high resolution imagery. These shocking pictures reveal an utterly destroyed landscape, with ships littering the landscape – having in some places come to rest on top of what few buildings remained standing.³

Ship on a roof, Akahama district, Otsuchi

In Higashimatsushima, the 45 metre Chōkai Maru was lifted over a pier and left aground

Elsewhere trains can be seen with their carriages piled up, having been completely swept from their tracks.

In July Google announced their intention to capture the scope of the destruction through a new initiative to create an interactive digital archive of the area, using Street View. Since then the Street View cars have driven 44,000 kilometres recording high-resolution images, and the new imagery has just been launched, alongside a new website called “Memories for the future“.⁴

Minamisanriku, August 2011

The website allows users to switch between before and after views of a wide range of affected locations in northeastern Japan. This unique project allows us to see exactly what kind of impact the tsunami has had on the landscape and its people.

Minamisanriku, July 2008

Minamisanriku, August 2011

The transformation is truly shocking. It’s unclear from the images exactly how much work has gone into removing debris, but it is clear that whole communities have been totally erased.

Higashimatsushima, July 2008

Higashimatsushima, July 2011

As Keir Clarke at Google Maps Mania said:

Let’s hope that in a couple of years Google can update the Street View imagery again to show these towns and communities rebuilt and thriving again.

Wikipedia has all the details of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami.

Locations: Japan / Categories: Street Views

View in Google Earth

The countries receiving updated imagery are Denmark, Ireland, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Romania, South Africa, Taiwan, Japan, the United States, and the United Kingdom.

Additionally, there is brand new coverage of two of Britain’s Crown Dependencies, the Isle of Man, and Jersey.

Peel Castle, Isle of Man

Mont Orgueil, Jersey

Of particular interest in the United States, brand new imagery has been added throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles and San Diego, taking in sights such as the Golden Gate Bridge, Staples Center, and USS Midway which are now shown in stunning high-resolution.

What can you find in the new imagery? Send us your finds via our suggestion form, or on Twitter, and we’ll post a roundup later in the week of your best finds!

Read the full story at the Google Latlong blog.

Locations: Denmark, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, North America, Norway, Romania, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, United Kingdom / Categories: Street Views

View in Google Earth

Did they know Google were on their way?

This message on a Dublin beach, “CYNTHIA, WILL YOU MARRY ME?”, nearly passes our stringent rules for acceptance of aeroplane-visible marriage proposals, but did Cynthia accept?

Thanks to LancelotLink

We’re pretty sure this crop-maze in France depicts a couple of bananas riding bicycles, but we haven’t a clue why.

Thanks to Rod

In Argentina we find another strange design decision, where somebody has arranged a whole bunch of trees into a giant guitar. For some reason this seems more sensible than the cycling bananas, but only just.

Thanks to Mick

OK, a giant guitar we kind of get, but who on Earth would want a swimming pool shaped like a foot? Somebody in Japan apparently.

Thanks to Jamie

Crazy roads

This ridiculously bendy road in the mountains of Chile must surely be a contender for the most bends covering the shortest distance award. As the crow flies, obviously.

Thanks to Shaun

Meanwhile, we suspect these “speed bumps” would cause a little more slowdown than required on Interstate 91, Massachusetts. If you drove really fast at them however…

Thanks to Meredith

You’d never see this any other way

This chilling scene capture the remains of a wrecked boat on the shores of a remote Antarctic island.

Thanks to Brian

In the news

Last week Apple announced iCloud, a new “cloud”-based music and data service for all you squillions of iPad and iPhone users – and here’s the brand spanking new facility in North Carolina where all your data will be stored (once you’ve unquestioningly uploaded it all of course).

Elsewhere, the actions of some unruly New Zealand students made headlines around the world when they did what students have done since students were invented – they drew pictures of penises. Except these students did it on a much larger scale than your average students. Compensating for something boys?

Have you found something weird, amazing, beautiful or completely inexplicable on Google Maps or Google Earth? Send us your suggestions and we’ll publish the best ones next week!

Locations: Antarctica, Argentina, Chile, France, Ireland, Japan, Massachusetts, New Zealand, North Carolina / Categories: Abandoned, Large Type, Other Vehicles, Watercraft, Weirdness

View in Google Earth

10 – The Bridge Suite, The Atlantis, Bahamas

Situated on Paradise Island, the Bridge Suite is located in the Royal Towers, sixteen stories up between two other buildings. It comes with a staff of seven, your own private entrance, and will sleep four adults. All for only $22,000 per night.

Customer rating: 70% (#51 of 170 hotels in the Bahamas)

9 – The Ritz-Carlton Suite, Ritz-Carlton, Tokyo

Situated on the 53rd floor (somewhere near the top of the picture), the Ritz-Carlton Suite overlooks the Imperial Palace as well as most of Tokyo. You’ll have access to an indoor pool, fitness suite, and the Ritz-Carlton lounge. You’ll also get a dedicated concierge for your $25,000 per night.

Customer rating: 90% (#8 of 613 hotels in Tokyo)

8 – The Penthouse at The Setai, South Beach, Miami

The Penthouse has four bedrooms (two of them kingsize), four bathrooms, two living rooms, a music room, and on the terrace there’s a pool and jacuzzi. It can be yours (for a night) for just $30,000 (and if you really like it, you can buy one for a cool $15 m).

Customer rating: 72% (#7 of 199 hotels in the Miami Beach area)

7 – Villa La Cupola Suite, Westin Excelsior, Rome

Located over the 5th and 6th floors the Villa La Cupola Suite claims to be the largest suite in Italy. For your $31,000 per night you get use of six bedrooms, a jacuzzi, rooftop terrace and balconies, private wine cellar, butler service and much more.

Customer rating: 71% (#274 of 1271 hotels in Rome)

6 – The Royal Villa at the Grand Resort Lagonissi, Athens

On the coast south of Athens, the Royal Villa offers you a living room packed with home entertainment, an office, a personal chef, heated indoor and outdoor pools, a gym, and a private beach. Not bad for $32,000 per night.

Customer rating: 67% (#51 of 411 hotels in the Attica Region)

5 – The Presidential Suite, Hotel Cala di Volpe, Costa Smeralda, Sardinia

A Bang & Olufsen stereo system, flat screen TVs, high speed internet, wine cellar, steam room and jacuzzi are just some of the luxuries available in the Presidential Suite. Just $34,000 per night.

Customer rating: 75% (#114 of 794 hotels in Sardinia)

4 – Penthouse Prestige Apartment, Hotel Martinez, Cannes, France

Overlooking Cannes bay the Penthouse Prestige Apartments provide you with a first class butler service for the duration of your stay. Fitted with the usual luxuries this apartment also comes with a Hammam (turkish steam bath). You’ll be able to book for about $35,000 per night.

Customer rating: 68% (#24 of 114 hotels in Cannes)

3 – Ty Warner Penthouse, Four Seasons Hotel, New York

Ty Warner Penthouse in the Four Seasons New York offers 360⁰ views of Manhattan from the 52nd floor. It has TVs tuned to every station in the world, so you’ll never miss your favourite show from home. You’ll also have use of a chauffeur to take you sightseeing in a Rolls Royce Phantom or a Mercedes Maybach. Excellent value for $35,000 per night.

Customer rating: 84% (#86 of 428 hotels in New York city)

2 – Hugh Hefner Sky Villa Palms Casino Resort, Las Vegas

Stay where Kanye West partied after the MTV awards. The Skyvilla has a cantilevered jacuzzi pool with glass end wall overlooking the Vegas strip. If you get really lucky at blackjack, now you know where you can spend $40,000 on one night’s accommodation.

Customer rating: 63% (#100 of 284 hotels in Las Vegas)

1 – The Royal Penthouse Suite, President Wilson Hotel, Geneva

The Royal Penthouse Suite overlooking Lake Geneva will cost you an unbelievable $65,000 per night. This suite will sleep you and five of your friends – and nobody with have to sleep in any of the marble bathrooms, or the hot tubs. This suite also boasts the absolute pinnacle of decadence: an “iPod docking station”.

Customer rating: 69% (#11 of 111 hotels in Geneva)

And before anyone asks, no, I’ve never stayed in any of these!

Thanks to Business Insider, and Tripadvisor for the reviews.

Locations: Florida, France, Greece, Italy, Japan, Nevada, New York, Switzerland, The Bahamas / Categories: Buildings, Street Views

View in Google Earth

Piilani Highway, Hawaii

Hawaii is of course well known for its volcanoes, and Google has done a great job covering the island chain’s roads and capturing some outstanding views. Here on the Piilani Highway on the island of Maui the road parallels the rugged coastline for miles and miles, all while gently riding the slopes of Maui’s ancient volcanoes. The road is ultimately very narrow, and it was closed for two years due to damage caused by the 2006 Hawaii earthquake.

D64, France

In the extreme southeastern corner of France, the D64 snakes through the Southern Alps and gives us some breathtaking views from high up in the mountains. The road is narrow, but that doesn’t stop cyclists and tourists from taking the journey as they are frequently recorded by Google’s cameras.

Going to the Sun Road, Montana

Winding its way up and down through Glacier National Park in Montana, Going to the Sun Road is a favourite among motorcycle riders in the United States. It’s been said that this road has the steepest, sharpest, and maybe even the most beautiful stretches of asphalt anywhere in America, and thanks to Street View, it’s easy to see why it’s so popular. Unfortunately for us, the camera car was using one of the original lower-resolution cameras when it made the journey.

Dalton Highway, Alaska

Alaska Route 11, also known as the Dalton Highway, stretches for 414 miles through some of the most deserted tundra in North America. The road itself was built as a supply road for the Trans-Alaska Pipeline, but today it’s frequently travelled by truckers carrying supplies to and from remote northern Alaska. It’s been featured on numerous television shows like Ice Road Truckers and America’s Toughest Jobs due to its extremely dangerous position relative to the Arctic Ocean, and this road is also one of the most northern voyages made by the Google street view car anywhere in the world.¹

Hakusan Super Rindo Forest Road, Japan

Mt. Hakusan is one of three sacred Japanese mountains, and the Hakusan Super Rindo Forest Road is a sightseeing route through the adjacent alpine nature reserve of Hakusan National Park. What this means for us is we get some stunning scenery to check out as the Google car travelled almost the entire length of the road. There are vertical drop, stunning rock faces, and for most of the journey you can actually ride above the clouds!

Mount Cook Road, New Zealand

Leading motorists to the highest mountain in New Zealand, Mount Cook Road is a stunning reminder that New Zealand is home to some of the most beautiful landscapes in the world. The route takes us along the western edge of Lake Pukaki, then up to the base of Mount Cook itself. The valley around the road was carved out by ancient glaciers, remnants of which can still be seen today.

Transfăgărăşan Highway, Romania

The Transfăgărăşan in Romania has got to be one of the most breathtaking roads anywhere. Packed with hundreds of turns and thousands of metres of elevations, it’s no wonder that the hosts of “Top Gear” named this road “The Greatest Driving Road in the World”. Thanks to this stretch of tarmac, the journey between Transylvania and Wallachia has become the stuff of legend. The landscape is surreal, and the road itself is intense. Well done Romania!

What’s your favourite Street View journey?

Locations: Alaska, France, Hawaii, Japan, Montana, New Zealand, Romania / Categories: Street Views

View in Google Earth

Despite being essentially invisible, a black hole can be observed through its interaction with other matter, which in this case is not the movement of galaxies, but rather some school buildings in Gyōda city, in the Saitama prefecture.

The result of the deformation of spacetime caused by a very compact mass, such localised black holes are actually not that uncommon. In fact they’re the universe’s leading cause of vanishing pens, missing remote controls and disappearing socks.

More about Black Holes at Wikipedia.

Thanks to Yoshino!

Locations: Japan / Categories: Weirdness

View in Google Earth

Unlike in Up however, the real life properties that find themselves in this situation don’t just float away, and their refusal to be moved has earned them the moniker of Nail Houses.

Edith Macefield moved into her home in Seattle in 1966, and in recent years turned down many increasingly large offers from developers looking to build on her land. In the end the developers decided to build the complex anyway, leaving her home boxed in on three sides. In the Street View images we can see the construction underway all around her little home, with her distinctive blue car parked outside visible even from satellite.

Edith sadly died in June last year, but since then her home was actually used as part of a publicity stunt promoting Pixar’s movie, and remains for the moment, as a reminder of what can be achieved by refusing to be steamrolled.

In Washington D.C., a Mr. Austin Spriggs reportedly turned down an offer of 3 million dollars for his property as it was directly in the way of a massive new development. Mr. Spriggs was apparently seeking a loan to open up a pizza restaurant on the premises, but when the Street View car passed, this was clearly still some way from becoming a reality.

It turns out that there are people all over the place who have decided, for the sake of pride, morals, or plain stubbornness, to remain in their homes no matter what. Here’s the home of a man who lives in the car park of the St. Alexius hospital in Bismarck, North Dakota. I wonder if he gets free parking?

Not even the biggest of companies can always get their own way either. At Microsoft’s Redmond West campus there’s one solitary private property, which was apparently left alone under the agreement that the house could stay there until the present owners died.

The phenomenon of “homeowner holdout” isn’t just constrained to private homes either. At Tokyo’s Narita Airport, the proposed layout of the tarmac was completely ruined by several farmers, who steadfastly refused to sell their land to the airport. You can see how the runways weave around the various farms that get in their way, as well as being split into tiny, useless segments by other bits of farmland.

I’m sure that this post only scratches the surface of this topic, so do you know of any nail houses in your area, and what’s the story behind them?

Wikipedia has more info on Nail Houses, and we wrote a story in 2006 about The Man Who Lives in the Middle of the M62. Thanks to Boing Boing and Deputy Dog.

Locations: District of Columbia, Japan, North Dakota, Washington / Categories: Abandoned, Buildings

View in Google Earth

Japan’s Mount Fuji (Fuji-san) is one of the most iconic and best recognised of any of Earth’s volcano, and when GSS first launched we received many suggestions that we post it. Unfortunately Google’s imagery was fairly low resolution at the time.¹

Thankfully the current imagery is vastly improved, and with its famous snow-capped peak, the view of Mount Fuji from up here is absolutely stunning.

At 3,776 metres, Mount Fuji is Japan’s highest mountain by a good margin, and given how beautiful it is from ground-level, it’s perhaps unsurprising that Fuji is widely regarded with great national pride, and has so often been a subject of Japanese art.

Although it hasn’t erupted since 1708, Mount Fuji is considered “active”², albeit with a low risk of eruption. For the sake of any occupants of all the buildings perched around the crater, I hope the volcanologists are right.

These buildings aren’t permanently occupied however, as they mostly exist to service the needs of the 200,000 people who climb Mount Fuji every year. Paved roads run to 2300 metres, from where the summit can be reached in 5 to 7 hours.

As I write this Wikipedia is having technical issues, but they do have a page about Mount Fuji. If you’re interested in climbing it yourself, Japan Guide has the full breakdown of how to go about it.

Thanks to (deep breath) Adam, hito, Ben, Jacek Fedorynski, Anne Mathews, Caius Toneriko, Jared, Eric, Ron Vogel, Roy Tanaka, Chris Palmieri, Planck, Ramsey Callaway, Matt Van Pelt, Corey, Colin Allen, TSG, Eitan Nudel, Fero GUNIC, Adrian Ward, Boniface, numlok, Tom Grusendorf, ian, Jerry Mills, Manuel Fernandez, Phillip Lockwood-Holmes, Dan, Turtleknee, TomG and Alfred.

Locations: Japan / Categories: Natural Landmarks, Volcanoes

View in Google Earth