Sever’s Corn Maze in Shakopee (outside of Minneapolis) is an annual maze which is apparently the largest in the united states. The Google Maps photo was taken sometime in 2002-2003 when the maze depicted an upside-down map of the world, perhaps because opposite magnetic poles attract? (Maze homepage.)

Thanks: byteCoder, Rich Holmes, Brandon & Dan

This is the Cirque du Soleil in Montreal. Well, it’s one of them anyway.. the ‘Circus of the Sun’ is an entertainment company founded in 1984 by former fire-eater Guy Laliberté, and actually consists of at least 11 different troups of performers (Wikipedia page).

Cirque du Soleil isn’t a circus in the traditional sense (because they don’t use any animals), but they do all sorts of stuff involving contortionists, jugglers, feats of strength, clowning, and trapeze artists. You can see one of their travelling set-ups in what is usually an empty car park in Minneapolis. Just north of here is Saint Anthony Falls, which also looks pretty cool from up here.

I saw one of their performances once in the Albert Hall, and I thoroughly recommened checking them out if you get the chance, it’s incredible stuff. As it happens, they’ll be performing permanently at the Tokyo Disney Resort beginning in 2008 if you’re planning a trip!

Thanks to Lowrent, Jean-Sébastien, Dauns, Robert Craig, Eric Veilleux and Andy.

If I was going to go to all the effort of writing something in a field I’d make sure it was something more interesting than the name of my country; everyone who’s here knows they’re here so what’s the point? Given the space I’d probably write “googlesightseeing.com”

Anyway, over in Rochester, NY is the letters “USA” mowed into a field.

And in Rosemount, MN a “USA” with flag is mowed with very straight lines.

Thanks: John & Amy.

Although not very interesting to look at from space, the Mall of America is the USA’s largest mall. If you switch to map mode you can see that it’s so big inside the building they’ve named the streets.

And if that’s still too boring you can scroll north to Minneapolis / St. Paul Airport where a whole manner of planes are parked, landing and taking off.

Thanks: Brandon, PikaPikaChick & a million others.