The rain shadow caused by the massive bulk of the Himalayan mountains creates arid conditions for a huge distance to the east. The 1,600km (1,000 mile) long arc of the Gobi Desert spans the border between China and Mongolia; it…

Fifty-five years ago today a teenager named Paul McCartney somewhat grudgingly went to a concert by The Quarrymen at St Peter's Church in Woolton, only agreeing to go after being told by a friend that it would be a good…

While we have looked at a number of very long bridges here on Google Sightseeing in the past1 generally they have all carried roads. Today, the longest bridge in the world, by far, is the Danyang-Kunshan Grand Bridge - a…

Stave churches are a type of medieval wooden place of worship that were once common across Europe. Today however, Norway is the only country where more than a single example of a stave church has survived into the 21st century1.…

For the first half of the twentieth century, the city of Detroit enjoyed decades of prosperity and spectacular development driven by a booming motor industry. But since the 1950s, a succession of challenges - including economic recessions, competition from overseas…

For centuries lighthouses have served as navigation aids, helping protect marine traffic from running aground on dangerous coastlines, rocks and reefs. As we're ever-so-slightly fond of superlatives here at Google Sightseeing, we'll take a tour of the tallest lighthouses around…