Novaya Zemlya (“New Land”) is a large Russian landmass located at the northeasternmost extreme of Europe. The rugged Arctic islands have one of the most severe climates on Earth and were also home to over 220 nuclear tests between 1955 and 1990.

Ripley’s Believe It or Not celebrates peculiar events and curious items through a variety of media (television, film, books, games) and a chain of museums around the world. Many of the Odditorium museums were created to look like they had…

Today is the 25 year anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster, so we’re taking another look back at the high-resolution imagery of the whole area that Google uploaded for the 20th anniversary of the events of 26 April 1986. In our…

First used in 1926, le Circuit de Reims-Gueux was a French Formula One and sports car racing circuit built on the public roads between the villages of Gueux and Thillois. The circuit hosted its first French Grand Prix in 1932 and continued to hold the event until 1966. The track closed for good in 1972, but the roads are still in place, and many traces of the old circuit can still be found, including the pit stalls, paddock, and spectator bleachers.

The term “blue hole” is given to sinkholes filled with water where the entrance is below the surface; but they are perhaps more accurately described as “vertical caves”. These caves were formed through normal erosion until the end of the…

Unbelievably (for us at least) today is the sixth anniversary of the the first ever post on Google Sightseeing, which was an aerial view of a MIckey Mouse-shaped lake at Disney World, Florida1. We’re very glad to still be here,…