Earlier this week archaeologists began excavating Stonehenge in an attempt to decide once and for all exactly when this enigmatic monument was constructed.

Stonehenge has most certainly been around many thousands of years, meaning there has been plenty of time for people to build loads of rip-offs and copies, most of them in the US.

Stonehenge II in Texas is a replica made from wire-mesh “stones” a bit like giant Papier-mâché. Strangely, the stones are about 90% the width of the originals, but only 60% the height - and if you make your way out to see the monument you’ll find it’s flanked by beer-bellied Easter island Moai. Obviously.

There’s ground level pictures on Flickr and more information at Roadside America.

Our second Stonehenge replica is found at Missouri’s University of Science and Technology is at least made of stone, this time made from 160 tons of granite carved with high pressure water jets. Sadly it’s only ½ the size of the original.

There’s also a ground level picture on Flickr.

East Stroudsburg University in Pennsylvania have a small replica which they apparently dubbed “Stroudhenge”.

Montana’s Stonehenge is located on a private golf course in Montana, and is claimed to be the most accurate replica ever built. But no-one’s been able to confirm that as the golf club is so exclusive.

Lastly, it’s difficult to see from the satellite photos, but Truckhenge whilst not a faithful reproduction certainly scores points through being constructed entirely in the medium of trucks. More info and pictures on Kansas Travel.

Thanks to Henderson Smith, James, FBK and others.

Previously on Google Sightseeing we’ve featured Stonefridge, Maryhill’s Stonehenge, the Segway Inventor’s Stonehenge and a little-known version in England simply called “Stonehenge“.

The Google Lat Long blog has announced that Google has just added 12 more US cities to their street view coverage, bringing their total coverage to, um.. lots. The new cities added are as follows:

• Albany and Schenectady, NY
• Boise, ID
• Juneau, AK
• Kansas City, MO
• Manchester, NH
• Milwaukee, WI
• Research Triangle Park (Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill), NC
• San Antonio, TX
• Salt Lake City, UT

And presumably just for today (because today is Valentine’s Day in case you’d forgotten), it seems the little Street View guy is standing on a little love heart.

Aww, puke.

As it’s home to the 509th Bomb Wing, operators of the very distinctive wing-shaped B2 stealth bombers, it should be easy to spot a B2 at Whiteman Air Force Base. Unfortunately, we’re not in luck today, as browsing around the base it appears that none of the bombers are on show.

But wait! We can now exclusively reveal that to maintain their magic-stealthy-ness the bombers are actually stored in… er, swimming pools?

OK, maybe it’s just a picture of a bomber painted on the bottom of the pool.

However, Alan Turnbull (no relation) reports on his Secret Bases website that earlier this year the image of the pool in Google Earth was obscured.

There’s no word on why it’s now been reverted, but I’m sure you crack-pot theorists¹ can come up with all sorts of ideas as to why this swimming pool is a matter of national security.

What’s definitely not a matter of national security, is this swimming pool in Germany. Left to right this swimming pool features the children’s TV characters Gary the Snail, SpongeBob SquarePants, Squidward Tentacles, Sandy Cheeks & Patrick Star.

Thanks to Simon Brennan, Gearthhacks and kjfitz

Here’s a plane in flight, here’s another one, and another. Ah, there’s hundreds of them - Boring! Now, here’s a School Bus In Flight. That’s much more interesting!

This is actually the City Museum in St. Louis. Built in an old shoe factory, the roof decor features two aircraft fuselages and a school bus.

Thanks: B.J. Olejnik

According to Google Maps this is Stacy Park in Olivette. I’m not entirely sure what that huge expanse of concrete is and the ‘DANGER KEEP OFF’ just adds to the mystery. Surely you can’t read that from the ground? Is it a big roof over something? But over what? Do any of our intrepid readers have an ideas?

Thanks to Lee Forshey.

On a bit of field in St Louis, we see the shadow of a Lockheed C-130 gunship. Click through and have a look for the plane, but come back here once you’re done…

You couldn’t find it, huh? That’s because this isn’t a shadow, it’s a bit of art. The detailed life size plane shadow was painted in 2002 for an art festival held in the urban wasteland of North St. Louis City in Missouri. Apparently some of the towers and whatnot around the area were also done as part of the same festival.

Thanks: Sam Ley

According to Mormons, the Garden of Eden was originally located near Temple Lot, a small piece of land which is now shared by three different sects of the religon. The largest of the three sects, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, has a small presence; theirs is the white box building on the SE corner. The Church of Christ Temple Lot’s presence is even smaller; theirs is the yellow-roofed building in the NW corner.

The other two structures which dominate this area, a Copper-roofed Auditorium on the SW corner and a spiral church on the NE corner, are both owned by the second largest, but obviously better funded sect, the Community of Christ. The Temple spire is inspired by a nautilus shell which spirals upwards (good ground shots on the architect’s website) and there is a map of the world painted on the courtyard to the West.

Thanks: Kaley, Charles Eck, Scott McClare, Rob Ellis

It seems that the reservoir of the Taum Sauk pumped storage plant in Missouri burst today. The reservoir sits on top of Proffit Mountain, some 800 feet above the hydroelectric plant, and when a section of the reservoir collapsed, it sent a 20 foot crest of water down the Black River, washing away homes and cars in its path.

Details are still unclear, but for more information on the story, you could try the Google News coverage.

Thanks to Ned Mitchell.