After months of planning, in the early hours of May 2nd 2011 a special team of 20 to 25 US Navy Seals launched a night-time helicopter raid on the town Abbottabad, Pakistan.¹

The precise location of Bin Laden’s hiding place was the subject of much speculation across the web today, with The Google Earth Blog, Google Maps Mania and The Atlantic all attempting to find it on Google Earth – but it was Stefan Greens at Ogle Earth who first pinpointed the compound where Osama died, a location which was later verified by the Pentagon.

In this 2005 image, we can clearly see the compound is surrounded by 4m-6m (12ft-18ft) walls. Situated in a fairly affluent area, with no landline or internet connection entering the property, the three story building had aroused suspicions. Months of surveillance eventually culminated in the raid that killed several people at the compound, including Osama Bin Laden himself – bringing to an end a decade-long manhunt.

In Google Earth’s historical imagery, we can see that in 2001 no building existed here – it was allegedly purpose-built to hide Bin Laden and members of his family.

Satellite imagery company Digitalglobe have released a much more recent image of the compound, taken January 15th of this year, which Ogle Earth have handily converted into a KMZ file for viewing in Google Earth.

Update: Geoeye has published an image that was taken today, which seems to show one of the helicopters used in the raid which had to be abandoned. Ogle Earth has once again supplied a Google Earth KMZ overlay of the image.

According to a US statement Osama Bin Laden was later buried at sea to prevent there being a grave which could ever become a shrine. Nobody has managed to find that location yet…

Locations: Pakistan / Categories: Buildings

View in Google Earth

While most border posts are mundane places where you fill out forms and get your passport stamped, this one is the scene of possibly the most spectacular – and the most well attended – border ceremony in the world, with crowds from both nations packing their own grandstand for a lively and festive celebration of nationalism.

By day, people and goods flow across the border, often with porters of one nation handing packages across the border to porters from the other. However at sunset, troops from the two countries parade in aggressive fashion, with much stamping, staring, brandishing of weapons, slamming of gates and coordinated flag-lowerings, all timed precisely such that one nation’s flag is not removed earlier than the other.

Check out the pictures at Panoramio and view some of the many YouTube videos to get a true sense of this border ceremony as a spectator sport.

Thanks to Mukesh Kanchan.

Locations: India, Pakistan / Categories: Stadiums and Sport, Weirdness

View in Google Earth

The dam was completed in 1976 as the result of a water-rights agreement between India and Pakistan. It is 143m high and almost 3km wide, for a total volume of 106million cubic metres of rocks and earth, making it one of the world’s largest man-made structures.

It holds back a reservoir almost 100km long, though the capacity of the lake has been reduced by silt deposits, just one of many problems encountered by the dam’s builders and operators.

The water is vital to irrigation for farms in the area and power stations at the dam provide a significant portion of Pakistan’s hydro-electric power (caution, vibrant text and background colour!)

Zooming in shows us that it also makes the perfect backdrop for a large religious pronouncement, with Arabic and English text from the Koran reading And HE hath made the rivers for service unto you.

Thanks to Rashid and Syed for pointing us to the first Google Sightseeing entry from Pakistan. This was also our first ‘large type’ from the Koran, though we have had advice to read the Bible and of course, many dams.

Locations: Pakistan / Categories: Large Type, Structures

View in Google Earth