High above the skyline of the Russian city of Yekaterinburg, this incomplete tower stands testament to what can be achieved with an amazing vision and poor financial planning.

At 220 metres, it is only half of its planned height of 400 metres, which would have made it one of the tallest towers in the world. It was also planned to include a revolving restaurant – something to rival the 540 metre high Ostankino Tower in Moscow.

Although construction began in 1983, by the end of the decade it had ground to a halt, much to the dismay of investors, but to the infinite joy of thrill seeking base jumpers¹, made easier by the lattice-work of metal to climb inside. By 2000, the number of people tragically dying from the tower forced the authorities to weld the doors shut.

Today it remains, rather eerily over the city, as these photos show.

Thanks to Rudi.

Driving across the frozen Amur River between Russian and China we can see a couple of trucks – driven by the fearless and legendary Ice Road Truckers!

Although it seems ludicrous, building “Ice Roads” over lakes, rivers or seas, is at times preferable to carving a road on land, as you can get long continuous straights on the ice, which hilly tree-covered land just doesn’t offer. However in this case it appears to be the only existing way across the river.

Driving across frozen water in a 2 tonne truck is of course slightly dangerous. Depending on the country, the ice only needs to be about 20cm thick for authorities to allow trucks onto the surface, and speeds may be limited to a painfully slow 16mph. Luckily our particular truckers don’t have far to go, unlike the men who drive the 568 kilometre Tibbitt to Contwoyto Winter Road each year.

Ice road truckers were made famous by the TV show of the same name, and the green light has apparently been given to make a fictional film based on the series in 2008. I’ve not seen the TV show, but I hear it’s much more exciting than boring footage of lonely truckers driving at 16mph across vast empty frozen lakes.

Read more about ice roads at Wikipedia.

Thanks to pooms.

Hidden away in the forests of western Russia, is a highly suspicious-looking collection of buildings which have never been place-marked by the Google Earth Community, and don’t seem to have ever been mentioned on the web.

The buildings are all exactly the same size (around 30m long), are identically spaced, and point in an identical direction. They’re likely to be impossible to see from the ground due to the dense forest, but the perimeter is marked by a road all the way round. Some of the buildings are missing however – several appear to have recently collapsed, and others have become completely overgrown.

There’s a small branch railway that services this place from a depot in the nearest village, Semrino, and the nearest village with a Russian Wikipedia page is Susanin, just to the south. None of this information turned up any answers unfortunately.

Alexei, our multi-lingual author of Google Sightseeing Italiano who also speaks Russian, investigated further and turned up this contact page which describes the area as an active army “reserve” – which he says means a strategic reserve stock of food, arms or anything else that might be required in case of emergency…

Despite the general state of repair of the place, Alexei informs us that it’s still very much active and is under 24 hour armed surveillance!

Thanks to ilya and Alexei.

The Battle of Stalingrad was one of the turning points of the war in Europe and with casualties above 1.5 million, arguably the bloodiest battle in all of human history.

One of the most heavily contested sites within Stalingrad was Mamayev Kurgan, a hill overlooking the city. It is here where the USSR dedicated a memorial to the Soviet victory, the centrepiece of which is an absolutely enormous statue – “The Motherland Calls!” (”Rodina Mat’ Zovyot!”), which at the time of its dedication in 1967 was the largest sculpture in the world.

Since then Stalingrad, USSR, has become Volgograd, Russia, but this monumental memorial still dominates the skyline. The 52 metre figure is made of concrete, and her 33 metre sword is stainless-steel, making the sculpture 85 metres from tip to toe (not including the plinth, which adds another 16 metres). Here’s a ground-level shot which you absolutely have to see to believe!

The Motherland Calls! was designed by Yevgeny Vuchetich (who also designed Berlin’s Soviet War Memorial) and she was erected as part of a series of sculptures commemorating the Soviet victory in the Eastern Front of World War II (another of which, Kiev’s Mother Motherland, we’ve previously featured¹).

This massive engineering task was orchestrated by Nikolai Nikitin who was also responsible for the previously featured Moscow State University, Warsaw Palace of Culture and Science and Ostankino Tower – which are all ridiculously enormous too!

More info about the Battle of Stalingrad, Volgograd, Mamayev Kurgan and The Motherland Calls!, as always, at Wikipedia. Or check out a tour of Mamayev Kurgan at the official site (in English).

This is St. Petersburg’s imposing Kazan Cathedral, which features an impressive and absolutely massive stone colonnade, encircling a small garden and central fountain. In 1876, this was the location of the first ever political demonstration in Russia.

This is actually one of several cathedrals dedicated to Our Lady of Kazan¹, and this one was completed in 1811, and was modelled after St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome.

Here’s the obligatory Wikipedia page, which unfortunately sounds like it’s been automatically translated from Russian.