Monuments

Belfast is well known for its many murals representing differing political and religious views of the city's communities. However in recent years, thanks to the Good Friday Agreement, there has been a move away from the political murals to more…

November 9 is an important date in German history for a number of reasons, but today we are commemorating an era-defining moment: the fall of the Berlin Wall exactly 20 years ago. In the weeks leading up to November 1989,…

We featured the Greenwich meridian two years ago on Google Sightseeing, so it's about time we had a closer look at the other global zero: the equator. Although it is more than 40,000km long, there are surprisingly few towns along…

8 years ago today, on 21 September 2001, a huge explosion occurred in the AZF (AZote Fertilisant – nitrogen fertiliser) factory in Toulouse, France. Three hundred tonnes of ammonium nitrates blew up, creating a 200 m wide crater up to…

For centuries, the source of the mighty River Nile was shrouded in mystery in the dark heart of Africa. In Roman times, the phrase caput Nili quærere, "to search for the head of the Nile", was used as a metaphor…

The city of Ashgabat - capital of Turkmenistan - is dominated by monuments to one man's megalomania - former President-for-Life Saparmurat Niyazov. Take, for example, the 75m tall Arch of Neutrality, which he subtly topped with a 12m gold-plated statue…