This is the fantastic House in the Clouds in Thorpeness, England, which was built in 1923 and functioned as the town’s water tower¹ for the next 40 years.

It originally held 189 kilolitres (~50,000 gallons) of water, and was designed so that from miles around it looks like a cottage has come to rest in the top of a tree.

Nearby there’s a windmill which used to be corn mill at the nearby village of Aldringham, but was moved here to pump water to the tower instead.

Today the House in the Clouds is a 5 bedroom guest house, but don’t even consider booking a room unless you’ve got some serious money to burn…

This Keyhole post has some fantastic photos of this bizarre structure and the official site has the entire history

It would seem that we have finally reached the absolute pinnacle of our continuing quest to discover the latest and greatest “World’s blankest blank“, as seen by satellite!

Yes you lucky people, prepare yourselves for… The World’s Largest Cow!

This is actually Salem Sue of New Salem, North Dakota, who is 38 feet high, 50 feet long, and was constructed from six tons of reinforced fiberglass back in ‘74 for the primary purpose of, um, bigging up the local dairy farmers I guess.

Over in the UK we have our own famous Concrete Cows sculpture, which were created four years after Salem Sue by Canadian-born artist Liz Leyh, but are only about half life size.

More about Salem Sue at Roadside America and more about Concrete Cows at Wikipedia.

Thanks to Simon Cope and Jason Smith.

The Caen Hill Flight is a set of 16 locks, designed to allow canal boats to rise 237 feet in just 2 miles of canal. This means that Caen Hill is officially the world’s steepest flight of locks. We do love obscure world’s largest facts.

Normally, canal boats travel up to a speedy 4 mph. But with all the opening and closing of gates, navigating the Caen hill flight usually takes about 5-6 hours. This means you’d be lucky to travel an average of 0.3 mph.

You may also notice that the individual locks of Caen Hill are so close together that they require an extended reservoir to the side.

Wikipedia: Caen Hill Locks

Thanks: ajho

Welcome to the final day of Google Sightseeing Reader Takeover Week. Every day this week, one of you has been chosen to have their very own sight posted here on GSS, while Alex and James take a well deserved holiday. Today’s final sight is from GSS addict Rob!

Nicknamed “Billionaires Row”, Kensington Palace Gardens, in West London, is home to a collection of the most expensive homes in the World.

For those of you who have just come off the hedge fund management circuit, prices start at around £50 million for the smaller house, although the asking price for 18-19 Kensington Mews was a rather modest £85 million.

Sadly though, the street plays host to embassies and ambassadors residences. However, the Sultan of Brunei, one of the richest men in the World, owns Number 20, with the Number 8 on top – “symbolizing the phrase Ba Shi Fa Cai” (”the number eight brings prosperity”).

The Sultan is in good company though, with the Worlds 5th Richest Man (and Britain’s richest), Steel Magnate, Lakshmi Mittal, living next door. He bought his house from F1 tycoon Bernie Ecclestone for £57 million – starting to see a trend here? The “Taj Mittal” is so called because the marble that is used in the house is the same stuff that made the Taj Mahal.

Britain’s 6th richest man, Leonard Blavatnik, also occupies, rather greedily, 15a AND b! Although he probably deserves it, since it is rather small, and only has a tennis court to show off. He picked his up for a snip at £40,000,000.

Find out more and get a full list of residents at Wikipedia.

Look closely at Barton Aerodrome and you’ll see 1940s army cars, oildrums, an anti-aircraft gun and a Nazi Fieseler Storch aeroplane. The Nazis have invaded!

Luckily, this is actually the film set for 2004 Period drama Island at War, which told the stories of fictional families living under the Nazi occupation of the Channel islands during World War II.

Thanks: JosieNorden