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“.

Leaping out of the back of someone’s house is a gigantic Bass fish.

The record for the world’s largest Bass fish ever caught was set way back in 1932, when a George W. Perry caught a 22lb, 4oz largemouth, which would have been around 75cm in length.

Many have tried to beat this record, but no-one has officially caught a bigger bass. My bass fish is a massive 90m in length, so can I claim the world record title?

Thanks: number1fan

Wikipedia reading: Bass fishing

Amongst several other interesting kite-shadows here at the Lincoln City Summer Kite Festival, Oregon, is the perfect outline of a giant sky-blue teddy bear!

The huge flying teddy is 12 metres long, and you can actually pick one up in your own choice of colour for only 6,000 New Zealand dollars (about 4,000 bucks, or 2,000 quid), although it’s extra to have your own design printed on his shirt.

Hmmm . . . perhaps we could promote our new book with a ‘Google Sightseeing Bear’!

(Shameless plug over.)

Also in this area is the D River, which Oregon reckons is the shortest river in the world - whereas the Guinness Book of World Records states that the Roe River in Montana is the shortest at 61 metres. Either way, I think Oregon is understating the length of their river, as 36 metres (or 3 Giant Teddy Bears) looks completely wrong to me!

Wikipedia: D River, Roe Rover.

Thanks to Jim Martin, Tim Forsyth and Andy.

Lots of things to see here in Yellowstone National Park, it’s just a pity we can’t see any of the grizzly bears, wolves, or free-ranging herds of bison and elk!

First up is the world famous Old Faithful Geyser, it’s in the middle the concentric walkways you can see in our thumbnail. Old Faithful was so-named because of the reliability of its eruptions, which are currently happening about every 65 minutes, unfortunately it’s not erupting in our picture. Of the 1000 or so geysers in the world, about half of these are in Yellowstone. If you look closely on the walkway, I think you can actually see people watching for an eruption.

Next up are these fantastic waterfalls at the mouth of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, whose yellow-coloured stones gave the park its name.

Finally we have the awesome Grand Prismatic Spring which is the largest hot spring in the United States, and the range is colour shown here is incredible. The blue-white pool to the Northeast is Excelsior Geyser, although it’s been dormant since 1990.

The colours in the spring are produced by different species of thermophilic bacteria that live in the narrow temperature ranges formed as the waters of the hot spring naturally cool farther from the heat source. The reddish bacteria at the outer edge survive in the coolest water with the yellowish and greenish bacteria living in progressively hotter water. The water in the central blue area of the spring is too hot to support any of the bacteria.

Lots and lots more information about Yellowstone National Park is available on Wikipedia, and the official Yellowstone site even has a webcam of Old Faithful .

Thanks to (and this may be our longest thanks list yet!) Brian Ralli, Rick, Tom Gula, Balazs Ganszky, MIke, dx, CosmicPenguin, Chris Prince, Rosewood, Jeff, spaz, Ballard, Brian, JasonRene, Corey Vilhauer, Benjamin, Peter Szabo, Kyle, Tim, Chris Shinkle, Dick Nielson, Wayne, Ray Bellis, Zoltan Horvath, Jens Kilian, mark, J. Gable, Kimon Berlin, Laura Vance, Sparky Treewaller, Matt, Don S, Jared Roberts, Fakus Namus and last but by no means least Rebecca Ray. Thank you everyone!

Studying at University can be quite a stressful experience so why not take your mind of things by indulging in a popular student pastime? No, not drinking and casual sex - creating gigantic letters on the side of a hill! Is there a better way to avoid lectures?

Our first example is a giant “Y” in the mountains to the west of Brigham Young University, Utah. You can see how it’s looking right now thanks to the 24/7 webcams.

There’s a giant “KS” (of an unfinished “KSU” - slackers) outside Kansas State University.

And in Montana everyone has a go with a “M” for Montana State University, another “M” for the University of Montana and just a little north a slightly smaller “L” for Loyola High School (even schoolkids are getting in on the act!).

Thanks: Keith, Elton M, Patia & Todd Spatafore