There are many types of radio beacons that are still in use today, but the majority are called VHF omnidirectional radio range or VORs. There are VOR stations all around the world, and given how widespread they are, you may well have passed one by without realising. The most common shape of the ground station resembles something of a bowling pin on a circular building. Pilots use the signal which is broadcast from these towers to fly to and from stations, therefore navigating across the sky.

© Copyright ZabMilenko and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence

Most beacons are located either at the airport, or placed out in far-away regions to avoid any interference on the signal. Some examples of these remote beacons include the Mitbee VOR in Oklahoma and the McComb VOR in Mississippi.

Take a look at the Babylon NDB (Non-directional beacon) on Long Island near New York. This beacon is situated right in the middle of a densely packed neighbourhood, and since it is only used as a directional beacon and not an omnidirectional range, it doesn’t have the classic bowling pin shape like the VORs. Due to the congestion around this beacon the FAA has declared its signal unusable beyond 15 nautical miles, which isn’t very far at all from a pilot’s point of view.

It’s not unusual to find beacons in very remote and rugged areas of the west of the US as well. Remember, some of the aeroplanes flying over these sparsely populated areas still need beacons to navigate, and thanks to this we see some interesting locations for these VORs. Out in the barren desert we can find beacons like the Sod House VOR in Nevada and the Peach Springs VOR in Arizona.

If you start looking deep in the mountains however, beacons like the Salmon VOR in Idaho and the Red Table VOR in Colorado (which is almost completely buried under the snow!) can be found. Notice how the Red Table VOR is painted in dark colours to contrast with the snow.

Pilots use these different types of beacons to navigate across the sky when they can’t see the ground. For example, let’s say we were going to pilot an aeroplane from Fort Lauderdale, Florida to Orlando, Florida. If we chose to use radio beacons for navigation, we could depart to the north using Fort Lauderdale’s own VOR as an initial direction (flying away from it), then switch over and fly towards the Palm Beach VOR as our initial waypoint.

After we cross over the Palm Beach VOR, a slight turn to the west and radio beacon frequency change would allow us to lock onto the Vero Beach VOR, then another shallow west turn and switch would take us directly to the Orlando VOR. During this entire flight, we would not need to see the ground at all (until we land anyway) just as long as we have functioning navigation equipment in the cockpit.

Aviation beacons are all around us, but the reality is that radio navigation is quickly becoming a thing of the past. With technological advances like GPS navigation, existing radio beacons are more commonly being used as a waypoints rather than actual navigation aids. For more information on aircraft instrument navigation, be sure to check out Wikipedia. If you would like to try and fly to a VOR yourself, try this free web based simulator.

Thanks to Runway Finder for helping me locate some of the above beacons.

Locations: Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Mississippi, Nevada, New York, Oklahoma / Categories: Aircraft

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From the aerial view, you can get a glimpse of Gehry’s signature “deconstructed” style.

When the $70M is lit up (this is Vegas, after all), the finished building looks like this:

Photograph by Matthew Carbone on behalf of the Cleveland Clinic’s Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health.

By zooming in further, you can see how the panels that support the building’s stainless-steel exterior are welded together. The thickness of the walls also acts as a sound barrier.

In Manhattan, it’s possible catch of one of Gehry’s largest projects under construction: 8 Spruce Street. The skyscraper is 76 stories high, the tallest residential tower in the Americas, and was completed in February 2011.

There are dozens of other Gehry buildings viewable on Google Street View, but I think my personal favourite is Dancing House in Prague.

Locations: Czech Republic, Nevada, New York / Categories: Buildings, Street Views

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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

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The Extraterrestrial Highway is really a quite barren and remote road. A few isolated signs post the speed limit as “Warp 7″ or warn of “alien encounters for the next 51 miles.”

Some of the only traffic on the road consists of buses that take workers in and out of base itself. Various bus stops, like this one, are reportedly where the workers get on and off the shuttle.

The only population that you’ll find on the Extraterrestrial Highway resides in the small town of Rachel, Nevada. Here you will find a few strange things like a UFO hooked up to tow-truck and a restaurant named the Little A’Le’Inn³. Rachel was also home to the giant KFC logo that GSS presented in 2007.

Near one of the entrances to Area 51 itself, there’s a small white mailbox that has become one of the most popular photographed areas near the base. The mailbox is covered in graffiti with messages to aliens and well-wishes from believers. On the road near the mailbox, the street view car spotted some graffiti left on the highway as well.

The actual main gate to Area 51 is down this road marked by nothing other than a stop sign.

According to reports of people who have taken the drive down the road, about 8 miles in you will see the “No Trespassing” signs and also security guards watching you in SUV’s. Near the top of this road is one of the more popular locations where the guards park and watch you come in.

If you keep following the road around the corner, you’ll find the main security gate that leads into the base. I’m sure you never want to make it this far unless you are supposed to be there!

If you want to see what it’s like to take the Extraterrestrial Highway and get as close as you can to Area 51, watch this great YouTube video.

Locations: Nevada / Categories: Aircraft, Deserts, Street Views, Weirdness

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Thanks to our friends at Google there are very few places in the world that can be still be considered secret. The entire Area 51 area was upgraded to high-resolution satellite imagery a few years ago and you can easily make out many of the facilities that were previously unidentifiable. For example, this building is rumoured to enclose a lavish night club and personal gym for the workers and temporary residents of Area 51. Just outside you can find a tennis court and lighted baseball field (or possibly alien landing pad).

When the employees aren’t relaxing in their exclusive night club, they might be seen at work at any of Area 51′s many different hangar sites. Near the north side of the facility you can see some of the older hangars that were used for the U-2 spy plane project in the 1950s, while on the south side a much newer and larger facility was rumoured to house the fastest aircraft on the planet during its military testing, the SR-71 Blackbird.

So what is there to do between work and play at Area 51? Well you could make your way over to the dining hall for some Jetson’s style lunch, or just head back to the large dormitories for some rest. After all, working with spaceships all day can really wear you out!

Commuters to Area 51 often use commercial aircraft to get back and forth from the base. A fleet of white and red 737 aircraft, nicknamed “Janet” after their radio call sign, continually fly workers between the facility and the international airport in Las Vegas. Google’s latest imagery shows a couple of the Janet 737s sitting on Area 51’s ramp outside what appears to be the base’s terminal. However, if you scroll south to Las Vegas and look at the airport there, you can get a much better view of three of the Janet shuttles sitting at the terminal awaiting their next flight.

The street view car got close enough with its high resolution camera to sneak a few pictures in too!

So where are the aliens? Area 51 is after all supposedly the home to spaceships and extraterrestrials. Well, not every building has a known purpose out there, and a few of them are home to some top secret operations. This group of structures is rumoured to be home to something called the Kukla Pen project, and these buildings to the Moscow River project. Anyone care to guess what they might be hiding?

Thanks to all of the many GSS readers who suggested visiting Area 51 again!

For more information about Area 51, visit dreamlandresort.com or Wikipedia.

Locations: Nevada / Categories: Aircraft, Deserts, Weirdness

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Carhenge (Alliance, Nebraska USA) – As an alternative to the multitude of regular Stonehenge replicas, why not visit Carhenge? It’s a scale replica of the real Stonehenge, the only discernible difference being that instead of standing stones, it’s made from thirty-eight grey spray-painted cars.

Eiffel Tower (Paris, Texas USA) – When on a trip to Paris, you have to visit the Eiffel Tower right? Well, the folks in Paris, Texas must have thought so, as they decided to build their own 20m tall replica (65 feet). The twist however (in true Texas style), is that they topped it off with a giant cowboy hat.

Parthenon (Nashville, Tennessee USA) – One of the more impressive duplications¹ of a famous landmark has to be the Parthenon in Nashville, Tennessee. This scale replica of the original Greek structure was originally built in 1897. Today, it stands as the centrepiece of Centennial Park, a large urban park west of downtown Nashville. Inside the structure you can find a 13m (42 feet) tall statue of Athena Parthenos that is dressed in more than eight pounds of gold leaf.²

Minitalia Leolandia Park (Bergamo, Italy) – Aside from visiting the replica of one building, you can also visit a replica of an entire country! Miniature parks around the world offer visitors small versions of cities and countries, usually in a beautiful, landscaped setting. From the satellite view of Minitalia, you can see that as the name implies, it looks just like a small Italy! On the ground level, visitors can walk from one city to another visiting tiny facsimiles of Italy’s most famous landmarks.

Las Vegas, Nevada USA – Perhaps the one location that has more wannabes than anywhere else is Las Vegas. Built in the middle of the desert, just about everything you see in this town can be considered fake in one way or another. On one end of the strip you’ll find a replica of an Egyptian obelisk that stands in front of the Luxor hotel, and on the opposite end you’ll find a replica of Seattle’s Space Needle. In between there are volcanoes, roman columns, the Eiffel Tower, and more!

Las Vegas is also home to a half scale replica of the Statue of Liberty, which is actually one of the most reproduced monuments in the world. Here’s a 35m (115ft) version in Germany’s Heide Park.

Google Sightseeing visited the original Parthenon and the original Statue of Liberty back in 2005, and in 2006 we took a tour of some of the best known replicas of Liberty, and several Parthenon impostors. We’ve also visited the excellent Dutch Madurodam miniature park, as well as taken an extensive tour of many of the members of the International Association of Miniature Parks.

Thanks to Feel Glass and many others.

Locations: France, Germany, Italy, Nebraska, Nevada, Tennessee, Texas / Categories: Monuments, Street Views, Weirdness

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A couple of hundred kilometres northwest of Las Vegas lies the former mining town of Rhyolite, one of the largest ghost towns in Nevada.

Founded in 1904, the town had an initially huge level of growth, but it was abruptly abandoned just a handful of years later. Today the eerie remains of Rhyolite which still survive here in the desert provide us with a fascinating look into America’s past.

The town was named for the richest ore in the area, rhyolite; but it was a gold rush in the nearby hills that propelled the population to around 4,000 just three years later.

By this time the town had water mains, electricity, telephones, a hospital, a bank, an opera house, a school, the railroad, and (allegedly) 53 saloons.

The ruin of the Cook Bank Building; and as it was in its heyday.

By the end of 1910 the Montgomery Shoshone Mine – the town’s lifeblood – was operating at a loss, and in 1911 it closed for good. With the mine gone there was nothing to keep the people here any longer, and by 1920 the population of Rhyolite was effectively zero.

Rhyolite School today; and as it was in 1915, already looking deserted.

One of the best surviving buildings in Rhyolite is the former Las Vegas & Tonopah Railroad Depot. It’s unusual for ghost towns in Nevada¹ to have this many buildings remaining – the survival of these ones in the harsh desert environment is thanks to their construction using materials other than wood and canvas. Like the house made of tens of thousands of beer bottles.

Las Vegas & Tonopah Railroad Depot today; and under construction in 1908.

The buildings here won’t last forever, but the fact that they have survived this long is impressive enough.

Vimeo has a good video tour, Flickr has a ton of photos, and the official site has a wealth of absolutely fascinating historical photos.

Locations: Nevada / Categories: Abandoned, Buildings, Deserts, Monuments

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First we visit Denver, where a strange blue object visible from above is revealed by Street View to be a giant blue bear peering through the windows of the Colorado Convention Centre.

This 12m high steel and fibreglass sculpture titled I See What You Mean by artist Lawrence Argent was installed in 2005.  And in case you’re wondering, here’s what it looks like from the inside!

Another large bear adorns the exterior of a casino in Elko, NV to promote their star attraction.

The statue is a replica of White King – 3m tall and weighing 1000kg – claimed  to be the largest polar bear ever killed. The stuffed bear is on display in the casino’s coffeeshop.

And finally to Detroit, and bears of a different kind – teddy bears and stuffed toys of many kinds create the ‘unique’ decor of this house on Mt Elliott Street.

While you may wonder about the affect on local property values, it is actually part of a neighbourhood art project.

Thanks to lyrics_guru.

Locations: Colorado, Michigan, Nevada / Categories: Street Views, Structures, Weirdness

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Fuelled by the ancient myth of the lost continent of Atlantis, underwater cities have always been the subject of much fascination.

Of course in real life small towns and villages are sometimes subsumed beneath changing bodies of water, but somewhat surprisingly, Google’s imagery has managed to capture at least three underwater towns which were all handily above water at the time.¹

St. Thomas, Nevada

Back in 1871, the small town of St. Thomas, Nevada (Wikipedia) was first abandoned by the Mormons, after a shift in the state line severely altered their tax liability.

The people who claimed the empty properties would eventually be forced to leave themselves, thanks to the construction of the Hoover Dam and the creation of Lake Mead, which even today is the largest man-made lake and reservoir in the United States.

The Hoover Dam was completed in 1935, and just three years later the last resident of St. Thomas was forced to leave by the rising waters of Lake Mead. Here we can still see the outline of the town’s school, which like several other properties becomes visible when the reservoir is low.

Adaminaby, Australia

Adaminaby (Wikipedia) is a town near Australia’s Snowy Mountains, New South Wales, which has the distinction of being one of the highest towns in Australia², and a very popular place from which to take fishing trips to nearby Lake Eucumbene.

On Street View we can see The Big Trout that graces the town centre in recognition of fishing’s importance here.

This is strange though, as it was the creation of Lake Eucumbene that forced all of the residents to have to abandon the original town…

In April 2007 the ongoing drought³ in this region brought the water level so low that Old Adaminaby began to re-appear, 50 years after it had been flooded as part of the Snowy Mountains Scheme hydro-electricity project.

Unfortunately the structures themselves are only faintly visible from up here, but elsewhere on the shores are other more prominent ruins that are also becoming exposed.

(Try turning on the photos option on Google Maps to see lots of great ground-level photos from the Panaramio Google Earth layer.)

Epecuén, Argentina

In contrast to these tales of towns being submerged in the name of progress, sometimes nature just takes its course. From about 1920 the water level of Argentina’s lake Epecuén rose steadily, and in 1978 the locals put earth and stone defences in place to try and protect their village.

These defences held back the water until November 10th 1985, when it finally broke through and flooded the village four metres deep. Here we can see the various buildings jutting from the surface of the lake.

Judging by the number of photographs available online, it seems that Epecuén is a popular destination for photographers, so there’s loads of ground-level photo sets to see – including this rather nice one on Flickr.

Thanks to Claude Warren and kjfitz.

Locations: Argentina, Australia, Nevada / Categories: Abandoned, Buildings, Weirdness

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Yesterday Google released a major update to Google Earth, adding 3D oceans, a Mars browser and, best of all, historical imagery for much of the globe.

In some places the images go back decades, such as this shot of the Las Vegas strip from July 1950.

When compared with the current view you can see how the strip expanded around the airport, which was in the middle of a barren desert.

Manhattan island also has images for many different years, and going back to April 1994 we can see the World Trade Centre towers.

Although there’s a wealth of new images we’ve never seen before, the update also gives us back lots of great shots that had previously been removed.

Way back in May 2005 we posted a stealth bomber that had been spotted at Edward’s Air Force Base, but later vanished with an image update. Now, by scrolling back to March 15th 2005, the bomber re-appears.

Or, if we keep going back until May 1994 we can see a couple of Blackbirds instead.

We can also revisit one of my favourite sights from the Google Sightseeing archives, the SS American Star.

These days it’s almost completely submerged, but step back through time until 2000 and you’ll see it rise out of the water and right itself.

So, get browsing the archives, and let us know what’s returned!

Locations: California, Nevada, New York, Spain / Categories: Aircraft, Buildings, Watercraft

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