This is the fantastic Cerne Abbas Giant, a 55 metre (180 foot) high chalk figure carved into a hillside near the village of Cerne Abbas, England. In his right hand the giant holds a 36.5 metre long club, and of course it’s impossible to miss that the Cerne Abbas Giant is, uh.. giant in every way.

Like many chalk figures carved into the English countryside, the Cerne Abbas giant is often thought of as an ancient creation – however, its history can’t actually be traced back further than the late 17th century – making it (a relatively sprightly) 400 years old.

As for the Giant’s purpose, Wikipedia says:

for hundreds of years it was local custom to erect a maypole within the earthwork about which childless couples would dance to promote fertility and even today childless couples are known to visit the site in order to copulate in the hope that they might have a child.

Now that would have been an interesting find!

Thanks to PapaPenguin, Fred Bobardo, and Anthony Houghton.

As the image updates that we reported last week have now made it to Google Maps, there’s now almost complete coverage of the whole of England, and we’ve had a ton of great locations submitted. So to kick off we’re starting in the capital, London.

This is London’s brand new Wembley Stadium, which although still under construction in these images, has been officially open since March 2007 (albeit a year late). It cost a staggering £798 million (about $1.57 Billion U.S.), which makes it easily the most expensive stadium ever built,

It’s an all-seated 90,000 capacity stadium (which makes it the second largest capacity stadium in Europe¹), and is protected from the elements by a sliding roof – which gives it the largest roof-covered seating capacity in the world (fortunately, the stadium also contains more toilets than any other venue in the world – 2,618 in total).

The white arc on the north side of the thumbnail is a gargantuan arch which supports the whole weight of the north roof and 60% of the weight of the southern side’s retractable roof. It’s 7 metres wide and spans some 315 metres, incredibly it stands at 22° from vertical and still rises to 140 metres!

According to Guinness World Records 2006, this arch is the world’s longest unsupported roof structure.

Nearby we can also see the White Horse bridge, so named after a Metropolitan Police horse that was used to restore order after ~200,000 spectators, who turned up to witness the 1923 FA Cup final, spilled onto the pitch before kick off. (Wikipedia)

P.S. Apologies for the downtime recently, we’re still trying to iron out issues with our new forums.

Thanks to Kerry and AndrewAnorak.

In the yard of Scheveningen prison, the Hague, the incredibly high resolution aerial photography has captured this prison inmate doing press ups!

As an aside, this is actually the prison where the former communist President of Serbia and Yugoslavia Slobodan Milošević was held for 5 years before his death in March 2006, shortly before his trial was due to end.

Thanks to gozoman

This is the bizarre Spiral Jetty, a huge piece of land art on the northeastern shore of the Great Salt Lake in Utah. Built of mud, salt crystals, basalt rocks and earth, it forms a 1500 foot long (~450 metre), 15-foot wide counterclockwise coil, which extends from the lake shore. It was actually entirely submerged by rising lake waters for many years, but due to lowering water levels, has since re-emerged.

Spiral Jetty was built all the way back in 1970 by the late American sculptor Robert Smithson, who also created some other pieces of land art which are still visible on Google Earth, including the 1971 piece Spiral Hill, Broken Circle in Emmen, Holland.

See other spirals on GSS, and read more about Spiral Jetty at Wikipedia.

Thanks to Dan Blue and Mike Shubeck.

This is Barra Airport, located on the hebridean island of Barra.

Now, I know what you’re thinking, it’s something along the lines of “No, you idiot, that’s a beach!“.

You’re exactly right: Barra airport is the beach. In fact, it’s the only airport in the world where scheduled flights land on a beach.

Of course, that schedule has to change regularly, as the airport’s three runways all become completely unusable during high-tide.

The beach is open to the public, and supposedly good for cockle picking, all you have to do is check at the control tower to see if the airport is currently operational.

More info and ground level pictures here and on Wikipedia

Thanks: Adam Rus & nikitakou