This is the Aqueduct of Segovia, which was probably built during the second half of the 1st Century AD, and is one of the most significant and best-preserved Roman monuments in Spain.

Technically, this is just the bridge part of a much longer aqueduct which carries water to Segovia from 17 kilometres away. It is only when the aqueduct crosses Segovia’s Plaza Azoguejo that it really becomes a sight to behold. This ancient engineering masterpiece is comprised of 167 arches reaching up to 28.5 metres!

Some of the height is obvious in the Google Image thanks to the fantastic shadow, but here’s some ground level photos that give you a good sense of scale, and here’s another that conveys how incredibly old this structure is.

Thanks to Ignacio Sanz.

As so often seems to be the way with claims of “World’s Largest”, there’s a certain amount of jostling for the top slot - regardless of who should rightfully be in it.

Most often described as the World’s Largest Cross is the one in Effingham, Illinois. Unfortunately it isn’t covered on Google Maps, but Microsoft have a view of the area.¹ Bizarrely, on the day this image was taken the cross appears to have donned some sort of invisibility cloak, but take my word for it, at 60.3 m high it just ain’t that big.

Over in Groom, Texas, they also have a very large cross, and we can actually see it this time. Dubbed “The second largest cross in the western hemisphere“, it used to be the largest in the western hemisphere (until they built the Effingham cross to be 2.4 m taller). Anyway, it’s a dubious claim-to-fame either way.

Never fear though, as there’s a truly spectacular large cross to see near Madrid, Spain. The Valle de los Caídos (Valley of the Fallen) contains one of the world’s largest basilicas, which was hewn out of a granite ridge by Spanish dictator Francisco Franco - to honour those who fell during the Spanish Civil War.² Absolutely towering above the basilica is the tallest memorial cross in the world, a 152.4 metre high stone cross that took 18 years to complete.³

Not to be outdone, in Nazereth plans are underway to build the true “World’s largest cross” - but at a proposed 60 metres they’re not even going to come close.

More on Effingham, Groom and the Valle de los Caídos at Wikipedia, and in our own original post on the Valle de los Caídos (the imagery of it has been updated since then).

Thanks to Jan & michael woodruff

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.

At this air base in Jordan we find six C101 jets on the runway, and although they’re not yet flying, they are in formation! These jets are actually Spanish-designed CASA C-101 Aviojets, which are currently in use by the air forces of Jordan, Chile, Honduras, and of course Spain.

C-101s are actually also used by the Spanish aerobatic display team, Patrulla Águila which is based here at the Spanish Air Force Academy, San Javier.

So are these planes part of the display team? Difficult to say, but there’s a lot of them here, so it’s more likely these are just air force pilot training planes.¹

More on the Royal Jordanian Air Force, aerobatics and the CASA C-101 jet at Wikipedia.

Thanks to Ramez Yaghnam and acalorado.

We recently had a request to find the Neighbours set, and we always like to keep our readers happy, so here is the real Ramsay Street.

If you view in ‘Hybrid’ mode you might accuse my of telling fibs, as this cul-de-sac’s real name is “Pinoak Court”. In the soap it’s called Ramsay Street after the Ramsay family who used to live there.

Wikipedia for Ramsay St.

We might as well make a worldwide soaps tour out of it, so let’s head by the small town that was built for the abysmal failure of a soap called “Eldorado”.

Broadcast by the BBC in 1992-93 it was supposed to be a cross between Eastenders and Neighbours but achieved the success of neither and was swiftly cancelled. I wonder what goes on there now?

Wikipedia for Eldorado.

Set in the fictional West Yorkshire village, Emmerdale is another popular UK soap which is actually filmed near Harrogate in the grounds of Harewood House.

Wikipedia for Emmerdale.

Previously featured: Coronation St & Eastenders

Thanks: John Seddon, Martyn Webster & Bruv

Here on Tenerife there’s an absolutely gigantic shape on the landscape, which looks very like a B2 Stealth Bomber. Just a coincidental arrangement of images, or the accidental discovery of a super-secret B2 Invisibility Cloak?

Via haha.nu (Thanks Rob W & Gudlyf)

Take your pick from either a pool of dolphins or a dolphin-shaped pool.

The image of dolphins in a pool was captured from Google Earth, where you can also clearly make out a crowd gathered round a dolphin at the side of the pool, possibly being fed by a keeper.

If you prefer your dolphin in the wild, then perhaps Australia would be a better bet?

Thanks to Chris Thompson, Noel Ballantyne and woowoowoo.

Mazinger Z is a giant manga robot who had his own anime show in the early 70s, and according to Wikipedia had a great influence on the Super Robot genre.

In this satellite photograph we can see a giant statue of Mazinger, standing proudly in a Spanish field. Nope that wasn’t a typo (’Japanese’ being quite a few keystrokes away) - this really is in Spain! But who built him there and why?

I’d never heard of Mazinger Z, but the show was a surprise hit in Spain, despite being edited down from the original violent Japanese version. A babelfish translation of this Spanish article might shed more light on the statue’s origins…

The statue of the Mazinger was constructed 20-25 ago years, when they emitted the series by tele, so Mazinger is the guardian of our urbanization.

Umm, nope, that didn’t help much. Loved the Power Rangers poses though.

Thanks: Gumbor