Northernmost High-Resolution Imagery – Ellesmere Island, Nunavut, Canada

Although the north coast of Greenland is slightly more northern than Ellesmere Island, Ellesmere Island is still plenty far north at 83.1°N, where we find this lone, random shot of ice breaking up on the Arctic coast of Canada’s northernmost island about 175 km (108 miles) northwest of Alert¹, the northernmost settlement on Earth.

Northernmost City – Longyearbyen, Svalbard, Norway

With a population of just 75, Alert may be the northernmost permanent settlement but it can hardly be called a city. The northernmost place with a population over 1,000 is Longyearbyen, the capital of the Norwegian territory of Svalbard. Because of both its size (just over 2,000 people) and location (78.2°N), Longyearbyen is home to numerous ‘northernmosts’ – the northernmost church, the northernmost bank machine, and even the northernmost blues festival!

Northernmost Street View – Nordkapp, Norway

At 71.1°N, European Route E69 is the northernmost road connected to continental Europe, snaking its way to the Arctic coast at Nordkapp (North Cape). The Street View images at the end of the road provide viewers with views of the Nordkapphallen tourist centre and a ceremonial cairn.

Northernmost Active Volcano – Beerenberg, Jan Mayen, Norway

The 2,277 m (7,470 ft) Beerenberg forms the backbone of the remote Norwegian Sea island of Jan Mayen at a latitude of 71°N. Beerenberg’s crater may be filled with ice, but fissures on the northeast slope have erupted with lava as recently as 1985.

Northernmost Golf Course – Ulukhaktok, Northwest Territories, Canada

The isolated village of Ulukhaktok on Victoria Island may not have much in the way of grass, but it still has a nine-hole golf course at 70.7°N. It may be hard to see on the satellite imagery, but look very closely and you’ll see little dots along the roadside – these are the artificial greens and tees necessary to play the barren course.

Northernmost Ski Resort – Riksgränsen, Kiruna, Sweden

Surprisingly far south (68.4°N) is the resort of Riksgränsen on the Sweden/Norway border. Almost bereft of trees, Riksgränsen is famous for its steep powder faces and huge rock drops, making it a must-visit for freeriders, extreme skiers, and anyone who enjoys skiing after midnight in the Arctic sun.

Northernmost Banana Plantation – Agricultural University of Iceland, Hveragerði, Iceland

Yes, they actually grow bananas at 64°N! Like many Icelandic towns, Hveragerði is built atop large reserves of geothermal energy – in fact, it lies on the southern slopes of the vast Hengill volcano. The huge amount of underground heat produced by the volcano actually makes it possible to grow bananas here as long as there is a roof overhead to keep away the cool air.

Northernmost Stone Castle – Olavinlinna, Savonlinna, Finland

Dating back to 1475, this three-tower castle sits on a small island at 61.9°N in the heart of the great Saimaa, the fourth-largest lake in Europe. The castle was built by Sweden in order to help lay claim to the land that would become Finland. For the past century, the island castle has served as the stage for the annual Savonlinna Opera Festival.

Northernmost Palm Trees – Southern France

While cultivated palm trees can be grown many hundreds of kilometres north with proper care, the furthest north that palms occur in nature is 44°N in southern France. As seen here on the promenade at Nice, they aren’t exact towering at this latitude; perhaps that’s why this species (Chamaerops humilis) is commonly known as the Mediterranean dwarf palm.

Northernmost Coral Atoll – Kure Atoll, Hawaii, United States

We end our list of northernmost items almost in the tropics. Located at a balmy 28.4°N is Kure Atoll, which is not only the northernmost atoll but the westernmost Hawaiian island. The atoll has but one island, Green Island, which is home to an unmaintained airstrip and an abandoned US Coast Guard station. Kure is set aside as a wildlife sanctuary and is home to tens of thousands of birds.

Locations: Finland, France, Hawaii, Iceland, Northwest Territories, Norway, Nunavut, Sweden / Categories: Islands, Natural Landmarks, Stadiums and Sport, Street Views, Structures, Volcanoes, Weirdness

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Friedrich Georg Wilhelm von Struve was member of a family of prominent astronomers¹. While the majority of his work involved the study of astronomical bodies, he also turned his attentions to geodetic surveying – the measurement and representation of the Earth.

He studied at the University of Tartu in Estonia and established the first of his triangulation points at the observatory in that town. There is a large stone monument just to the north of the main building.

Further locations were established roughly along a meridian line originating in Tartu and spanning almost 3,000km. The majority of the sites were hill- or mountain-tops, or other prominent points of land. This wide range of triangulation points would have allowed accurate calculations of the size of the whole planet.

The 265 locations were – at that time – in only two countries: the Sweden-Norway Union and the Russian Empire. The intervening years have seen these two disintegrate into ten separate countries. Most of the 34 locations which make up the World Heritage Site are marked by monuments of some kind. The northernmost point is in Hammerfest, Norway. It’s a low-res area on Google maps, but the monument is worth a closer look.

In Tornio, northern Finland, the quite beautiful Alatornion kirkko was the only building – other than the Tartu observatory – that was used as a triangulation point.

Further south in Finland, Aavasaksa is a small hill also used as a triangulation point. At the top there is a hunting lodge used by leaders of the Russian Empire. It is currently in use as a cafe and there is a monument consisting of a large boulder surrounded by an iron representation of the globe.

In the Baltic Sea, points were located on two islands: the highest point on Finland’s Mustaviiri, and a hill-top on Russia’s Gogland.

The village of Jekabpils in Latvia has a park named after Struve at the location of the triangulation point.

The majority of points to the south of the Arc – in Lithuania, Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine – are marked by small monuments, in rural areas covered by low-res imagery, so there’s not much to see on satellite images. If you’re curious, you can find many of the locations marked on this Google Maps interface.

The southernmost monument is in what appears to be a housing development in the Ukrainian town of Stara Nekrasivka,

Wikipedia has a bit more information, while the Wikidot entry has a detailed list and map of all 265 triangulation points, along with photos of many of the World Heritage locations.

Locations: Belarus, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Norway, Russia, Sweden, Ukraine / Categories: Buildings, Monuments, Street Views, Structures, World Heritage Sites

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This 360m long, 72m high behemoth weighing 220,000 tons was constructed in Turku, Finland, where unfortunately Google only has very low resolution images. However, we’re fairly sure that the white rectangle in the centre of this image is the Oasis! Panoramio has numerous photos of the ship under construction.

Designed to carry up to 6,300 passengers and over 2,000 crew, this ship is almost 50% larger than the Freedom class vessels mentioned in our previous post. It is so large that, soon after delivery, it faced a major obstacle in the form of the Great Belt Fixed Link bridge in Denmark. The Oasis had to safely pass under this bridge in order to reach the North Sea.

Her retractable funnels were lowered as much as possible, but still she had to build up speed to ride low enough in the water to pass under the bridge with less than 60cm to spare! A pair of YouTube videos show how perilous this was – from on board the ship, and from land.

After surviving this first test, the Oasis crossed the Atlantic to its home port of Port Everglades in Florida, from where it will cruise the Caribbean starting in December. It will be joined by a sister ship, MS Allure of the Seas, in 2010.

In addition to now-standard activities such as surf simulators and climbing walls, passengers will enjoy numerous ground-breaking cruise ship features such as an open air central park (with real trees and grass) running the length of the ship, ‘loft’ cabins and a bar which travels up and down between decks. There is also 25m zipline and a boardwalk (with carousel and tattoo parlour) leading to an outdoor theatre for aquatic shows with a spectacular backdrop of the open ocean.

Most cruises will call in at Labadee – Royal Caribbean’s ‘private island’ – in reality a fenced-off peninsula on Haiti’s northern coast, where workers are rushing to finish construction on a pier long enough to accommodate these new ships.

While this fake tourism would be unbearable by many, 500 locals directly benefit from employment or from selling their wares at the ‘flea market’, and Haiti’s poverty-strapped government happily rakes in $6 for each passenger. At other ports, locals and visitors alike complain about overcrowding when multiple ships are in port on the same day. This new generation of ships may only increase this problem, as well as the usual environmental concerns of fuel usage and the effect on coral reefs and wildlife.

Marine Buzz has an excellent article about the Oasis, while USA Today has some great pictures of the construction process.

Locations: Denmark, Finland, Florida, Haiti / Categories: Bridges, Islands, Watercraft

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Rather more modern than the Ethiopian Rock Churches which I wrote about recently, Temppeliaukio was originally conceived before the second world war. Construction was finally completed in 1969, at a quarter of the originally-intended size. I assume the Church would have filled most of the rocky area clearly visible from Bing Maps’ bird’s eye view.

The image of a space ship surrounded by rock originally created some controversy, but over time it has grown to become one of Helsinki’s leading tourist attractions.

Temppeliaukio is perhaps best appreciated from the inside where the bare granite walls and gleaming copper dome are lit with natural light from 180 windows which separate those two elements of the structure.

Rock excavated for the interior of the Church was used to build up the walls, and to create the entranceway. While the walls were originally supposed to be covered over, it was decided to leave the rock bare as it created excellent acoustics for musical performances.

Thanks to kockopes.

Locations: Finland / Categories: Buildings

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