40 Bizarre and Cool Google Earth Photos
- Posted in Inspiration, Photography
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Google Earth is used when you want to explore rich geographical content, want to see satellite images, maps, landscapes, 3D buildings or view satellite images from galaxies in outer space. It also lets you search the whole planet within seconds without requiring you to leave your comfortable room. You can search for anything on this planet whether it is a building, a landscape or anything else, Google Earth will help you. In this post we have collected some bizarre and interesting Google Earth photos, we hope they will impress you.
Google Earth Photos
Will U Marry Me
Marriage proposal seen on a rooftop via Google Maps.
Google Escher Effect – Paris, France
Stitching together satellite pix and aero pics of cities can result in situations like this where the different aerial vantage points result in buildings’ pictures being taken at different angles. Once stitched together, the taller buildings at the edges of each of the pictures appear to be leaning toward or away from one another at pronounced angles.
Graffiti in Google Maps
Site of an extinct volcano crater, the Cerro Prieto, located near Mexicali in Baja California (Mexico). Apparently, a lot of visitors to the site have decorated it with their graffiti, drawn huge enough to be seen from high above. The graffiti appears to have been drawn with the intention to be seen by people looking down into the crater from the eastern rim of the crater. Here’s a closeup shot of it, taken from the ground.
Auto Antics
Think parking is tough where you live? In Westenbergstraat, Netherlands, drivers apparently have to park on the sides of walls.
Localised Black Hole Discovered
As we all know, the general theory of relativity states that a black hole is a region of space from which nothing can escape – including light. Astronomers have identified lots of places where black holes may exist, but apparently they missed one – about 60km north of Tokyo.
Internet fan says he found the face of Satan using Google Earth
Heart-shaped island highlighted by Google Earth becomes hit with lovers
The 130,000 square yard islet of Galesnjak came to prominence after its unusual shape was highlighted on Google Earth.
Iraq’s Bloody Lake
This blood-red lake outside Iraq’s Sadr City garnered a fair share of macabre speculation when it was noticed in 2007. One tipster told the tech blog Boing Boing that he was “told by a friend” that slaughterhouses in Iraq sometimes dump blood into canals. No one has offered an official explanation, but it’s more likely that the color comes from sewage, pollution or a water-treatment process.
Issaouane Erg desert – Dunes (Algeria)
The shapes and colors of the dunes in this desert are amazing. Notice that the three dunes have almost identical shapes. And there are tens of throusands just like those all around.
Giant Gulliver from Google Earth, Hunters Hall Park, Craigmillar, Scotland.
Terrain Face in Google Maps
The terrain in Alberta, Canada accidentally forms what looks like a human face when viewed from the air or when viewing the satellite pic in Google Maps.
Osmington White Horse
The Osmington White Horse, outside Sutton Poyntz, UK. This prehistoric figure is carved into the white chalk of the hillside – such horse carved shapes are called “Leucippotomy”.
Google Escher Effect pic from Houston
Here’s another weird satellite pic from Google Maps of some downtown Houston skyscrapers. This effect has become known as the “Escher Effect”, or the “Google Escher Effect”.
Land Art near Munich Airport
Land Art or “Earth Art” appearing in a field near the airport in Munich, Germany.
KFC space logo
Yum! Brands Inc created the logo near Rachel, Nevada, and claimed it’s the first ad that can be seen from space. If you recall, the same company had previously wanted to beam a laser ad up onto the moon for Pizza Hut, but had later scaled back to buying ad placement on the side of a Russian rocket.
Firefox Logo
Crop circle art made in the shape of the iconic Firefox Logo near Portland, Oregon.
Where’s Waldo in Google Maps?
Canadian artist Melanie Coles built a large image of the iconic “Waldo” onto a rooftop at an undisclosed location in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
Bunny in Google Maps
Giant Pink Bunny created by a group of artists near Artesina, Italy.
Coca Cola Logo in Google Maps
This Coca-Cola logo in Google Maps was apparently created out of coke bottles just outside of Arica in Chile.
Portrait of Ghenghis Khan in Google Maps
Out of some sort of fear that they might forget who he was, the people of Mongolia have carved the likeness of Ghenghis Khan onto a hillside outside of Ulaanbaatar.
The Vitruvian Man by Da Vinci
Leonardo da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man – one of the world’s most recognizable illustrations – is rendered here in crop art in Germany.
The Palm Islands of Dubai
The Palm Islands are artificial islands in Dubai, United Arab Emirates on which major commercial and residential infrastructure will be constructed. They are being constructed by Nakheel Properties, a property developer in the United Arab Emirates, who hired Belgian and Dutch dredging and marine contractor Jan De Nul and Van Oord, some of the world’s specialists in land reclamation. The islands are the Palm Jumeirah, the Palm Jebel Ali and the Palm Deira.
Oprah Maze
She’s got a massive syndicated show and a magazine called O, and she was dubbed the most powerful celebrity in the world by Forbes. Why shouldn’t Oprah get her own corn maze? An Arizona farmer created this 2004 tribute to the TV talk-show host.
Crop Circles
Without a doubt, the best thing that ever happened to crop circles is Google Earth. This circle in the desert just outside Beatty, Nevada.
Roof Ad, New York City
Roof ad seen via Google Maps in New York City, apparently for a “Roller Skating” rink.
Likely intended to target LaGuardia Airport passengers, but many rooftop ads like this are starting to provide impressions through users of Google Maps and other popular online mapping systems which include aerial photos and satellite photos.
Ni Pena Ni Miedo (No Shame Nor Fear)
Written in the sands of the Atacama Desert, Chile, are the words “ni pena ni miedo” which translate more or less as “No shame nor fear”, and together they form what must surely be the world’s largest poem.
Giant of Córdoba takes a bath
Giants have a hard time getting clean. I mean, baths aren’t usually built big enough to fit your average giant, right? Which is the only sensible explanation as to why there’s a giant sitting in the Guadalquivir river in Córdoba, Spain.
Google Maps Oddity
This is a very strange picture from Google Maps satellite picture of downtown Dallas. The rounded top building in the upper middle is the JPMorgan Chase Tower. Next to it is the tall rectangular 2100 Ross Avenue building (dead center). Catty-cornered from those two on the left side is the pointy-topped Trammell Crow Center which appears to be leaning at a sharp angle compared with the other buildings.
Brunel 200th Birthday Maze
This maze in the UK was made to celebrate Brunel’s 200th birthday.
Land Art – Bug in Illinois
Effigy Tumuli, by Michael Heizer, are a few different land art pieces built on Buffalo Rock in Buffalo Rock State Park, overlooking the Illinois River. (Built between 1983-1985) The animal shapes are barely visible now from satellite pics, though you can see the beetle or roach shape outline in this screengrab.
Karl’s Maze, Germany
Karl’s Maze in Purkshof, Germany. Since 1921?
Great post, love how people creatively find their way into Google Maps’ satellite view. Something I’d love to do, but on a scale like the KFC/Waldo pieces, I don’t know where I’d find the time or resources!
One I really like is on the Hawaiian island of O’ahu: http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=&sll=21.524917,-158.037488&ie=UTF8&ll=21.524917,-158.037488&spn=0.001397,0.001979&t=h&z=19
It’s the Dole Plantation center, where they have a Pineapple shaped maze.
Did you READ this article? And/or apply common sense? Most of these were NOT done for Google Maps. They were done to be seen by passengers in landing airplanes.
awesome collection frd
great collection of interesting images.
Did you noticed this giant skelleton ???
http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=48.805035,2.119177&spn=0.000625,0.002043&t=h&z=20
that giant skelleton is a great piece of art made by the italian artist Gino de Dominicis (he came from Ancona).
Youu can find more news here:
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.woostercollective.com/2007/03/30/milanskel2.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.woostercollective.com/2007/03/25-week/&h=333&w=500&sz=46&tbnid=Ncmo3-B53P-gkM:&tbnh=87&tbnw=130&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dgino%2Bde%2Bdominicis&usg=__3MmXuVyGQ5XRve_P8NvGMwaoEuU=&sa=X&ei=oKxGTNHpHJP34Abhr5DNCw&ved=0CBkQ9QEwAA
awesome inspirations from google maps.
Great Collection.. Thanks for sharing.
What a nice pics.
KFC and the red sea.. deffinitly photoshopped
The Firefox logo is also obviously fake.
Come on .. they are not fake you can see there!
http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&om=1&t=h&ll=45.123747,-123.113729&spn=0.001243,0.002173&z=19
n here is the KFC one’s link:
http://maps.google.ca/maps?num=30&hl=en&safe=off&rlz=1I7DDCA_en-GB&resnum=0&q=tempiute%20nevada&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wl
On the first link (the one to the firefox logo), if you move down a bit you’ll see an air plain and 5 cars, 4 forming a cross shape. And beside it what it looks like a bunch of people lying on the floor… wtf is that?! Mob deal gone bad…?
hey folks,
i miss the nazca lines in peru!
WOOOW!! Such an awesome post! Thank you!
here is the KFC one’s link:
http://maps.google.ca/maps?num=30&hl=en&safe=off&rlz=1I7DDCA_en-GB&resnum=0&q=tempiute%20nevada&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wl
really cool collection i like all the pictures…this is very nice work who has done this….Great effort…..:)
Great collection, Now I am thinking to create something on my house which will appear in next updates of Google Earth. ;)
been looking for Waldo… can’t find him though… =/
This is a pretty cool corn maze celebrating a city’s centennial.
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=shallowater+tx&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=38.281301,78.925781&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Shallowater,+Lubbock,+Texas&ll=33.692767,-101.955684&spn=0.002459,0.004817&t=h&z=18
Gosh… this post is such a time waster… spending lots of time looking at these photos.
There goes 10 minutes!
Well assembled collection – had not seen many of these before.
Terrific work! loved the heart shaped island but it’s very strange the blood lake.
Great! Some amazing and some unbelievable.
that’s a lot of earth covered right there…
Awesome! I would have been nice if you could have also mentioned the Geo locations. :)
Great invented by people!
Amazing collection. Rooftops, wide fields and huge islands seem to be the new places for advertising, courtesy Google Maps.
awesome…….
There is word “???” (fuck in English) on the russian house, but I don’t know its coordinates
Nice one :)
Amazing photos!
the neon graveyard in las vegas is neat from the sky:
http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&t=k&ie=UTF8&ll=36.176496,-115.135163&spn=0.000694,0.001047&z=20
note the skull from the old treasure island and the m&ms
actually?I count twice , there only 38 pics in this post???
you may change the number in the title then.
however , nice collection
Those are great. There are some very creative people out there.
Wow! Amazing photos
On the six pointed star “crop circle”; it’s part of a bombing range if you check the source image http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=37.401437,-116.86773&z=15&hl=en&t=h. Zooming out shows bomb craters to the east of the star. Zooming in shows various berms built into the star which are defensive positions. There’s some sort of big structure in each of the berms – possibly a type of simulated anti-aircraft missile position. It’s not a ‘crop circle’.
Fun seeing stuff from above. Thanks for the post.
I can’t believe you missed Murphy’s Law:
http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&q=chandler,+az+maps&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Chandler,+Maricopa,+Arizona&ll=33.302686,-111.842297&spn=0.00061,0.001206&t=h&z=20
this is just amazing!
i wonder what we will be able to do next.
thank you for posting!
superb share
Ok, it says no link dropping, but allow me to drop a link: http://strangethingsseeningoogleearth.blogspot.com/
Nice post… Some interesting things out there :o)
Awesome post!
wow these are some Odd and funny pictures this is one of the cool posts here :) i know that there are some blind spots in Israel that were censored… Atomic weapons ?
(just sayin’)
These are great, they should have done an series of images here in the Southeastern United States of the “See Rock City” barns. They are all over Tennessee and Georgia, maybe a thousand or so of them. It was the parks only form of advertising in the 1950′s. Here’s the Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_City
Simply amazing!
Cool))
Nice collection …
Cool
“Will u get away”
Thats exactly what I would say if someone is spying my or watching my house with an helicopter/satelite.
Great colection, that red lake makes me goo creep.
Check this out: a fighter jet parked in a back lot in Paris: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&sll=43.216645,27.911806&sspn=0.901731,1.742706&ie=UTF8&ll=48.825092,2.198554&spn=0.000796,0.001702&t=h&z=20