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Google Maps: the Earth is strange and beautiful
Qingu
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I recently had a revelation about Google Maps that may be obvious for the rest of you but was nonetheless, well, revelatory:
Google Maps lets you treat Earth like the overworld map in a Final Fantasy game!
I always loved overworld maps in videogames. I think there is a certain artistry towards designing a world map, and that worlds themselves can be beautiful to look at.
In that vein, let this thread be a place to post and discuss pictures of weird and cool shit you find on Google Maps.
• This is Saudi Arabia, mostly a barren wasteland. Look at the beautiful sweep of the eastern desert.
• Close-up of the desert. I love deserts. They're so much less messy than other biomes. Wind and rock and time, that's all there is.
• Close-up of the dunes. So parallel!
• Look at these things! All those green dots. This is in the southern region of Saudi Arabia, slightly north of the border of Yemen, and just to the west of the southernmost curve of that sweeping desert.
• What are they? Agricultural enclaves?
• Close-up of the circles. If this is irrigation, farming in Saudi Arabia looks much cooler than it does in America.
• And finally, to conclude our tour of Saudi Arabia: behold the holiest place in Islam, the Grand Mosque. It's huge! You can even see the crowds around the Kaaba (the sacred black cube in the center). This must be how Allah feels when he looks down on his peeps.
______________
Post pretty screenshots of Google Maps, and discuss!
Google Maps lets you treat Earth like the overworld map in a Final Fantasy game!
I always loved overworld maps in videogames. I think there is a certain artistry towards designing a world map, and that worlds themselves can be beautiful to look at.
In that vein, let this thread be a place to post and discuss pictures of weird and cool shit you find on Google Maps.
• This is Saudi Arabia, mostly a barren wasteland. Look at the beautiful sweep of the eastern desert.
• Close-up of the desert. I love deserts. They're so much less messy than other biomes. Wind and rock and time, that's all there is.
• Close-up of the dunes. So parallel!
• Look at these things! All those green dots. This is in the southern region of Saudi Arabia, slightly north of the border of Yemen, and just to the west of the southernmost curve of that sweeping desert.
• What are they? Agricultural enclaves?
• Close-up of the circles. If this is irrigation, farming in Saudi Arabia looks much cooler than it does in America.
• And finally, to conclude our tour of Saudi Arabia: behold the holiest place in Islam, the Grand Mosque. It's huge! You can even see the crowds around the Kaaba (the sacred black cube in the center). This must be how Allah feels when he looks down on his peeps.
______________
Post pretty screenshots of Google Maps, and discuss!
Qingu on
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edit: beat'd
http://googlesightseeing.com/ is a good site for more of these sorts of things.
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