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Planet Earth

25 weirdest things on Google

Earth
By Ben Biggs last updated
Countdowns
October 25, 2022

Google Earth and satellite imagery

has revealed some strange things,
from secret military bunkers in China
to phantom islands to a mysterious
pentagram in Kazakhstan.

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This strange pentagram, etched into the Earth's surface in a

remote corner of Kazakhstan, can be seen on Google Maps.
(Image credit: Google Maps)

zona Word "Hamad" written on al Futaisi Island Aeri

There are many, many weird things seen on

Google Earth. The service compiles images
from various sources, from satellites in
geosynchronous orbit that snap low-
resolution photos from tens of thousands of
miles above Earth, to satellites closer to
Earth that capture higher-resolution shots,
and even aerial photos taken from airplanes,
kites, drones and even balloons. The
imagery is available to anyone who
downloads the software, and archaeologists
have taken advantage of this rich resource.

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From a boneyard of military planes, to a

polka-dot pattern created by ants, to
mysterious structures etched into the Gobi
Desert and even a phantom island in the
South PaciPc, Google Earth brings some
wacky places to light. Here's a look at some
of the strangest.

SWASTIKA IN KAZAKHSTAN

A swastika-shaped geoglyph can be seen from above Kazakhstan.

(Image credit: Image copyright DigitalGlobe, courtesy Google
Earth)

Scientists discovered more than 50

geoglyphs across northern Kazakhstan in
Central Asia, including this swastika-shaped
design. Though the swastika symbol was
created from timber, many of the geoglyphs
were made of earthen mounds. The
geoglyphs seem to date back 2,000 years. At
the time, swastikas were not uncommon
across Europe and Asia and were not of
course aSliated with any political beliefs.
[Read more about the swastika geoglyphs
and other Kazakhstan designs]

ISLAND IN A LAKE ON AN ISLAND IN A

LAKE ON AN ISLAND IN PHILIPPINES

An island-in-a-lake-on-an-island-in-a-lake-on-an-island.

This Google Earth image is an eye-full and a

mouthful, as it's an island-in-a-lake-on-an-
island-in-a-lake-on-an-island. Yes, Google
Earth captured this image showing a tiny
island that resides inside a crater lake on an
island called Volcano Island in a lake called
Taal lake on the Philippine island of Luzon.
For years apparently, this phenomenon was
thought to be the largest of its kind spied by
Google Earth. However, it turns out that
accolade goes to a 4-acre spit of land in
northern Canada where no human has likely
stepped foot.

WHEEL STRUCTURES IN AZRAQ OASIS IN

JORDAN

Wheel structures in the Azraq Oasis in Jordan, as seen in this

Google Earth image. (Image credit: Image courtesy Google Earth))

Google Earth has spied some old artistry

etched into the surface of the planet,
including wheel-shaped geometric
structures that may date back some 8,500
years, making them older than Peru's
geoglyphs called Nazca Lines. Some of these
spoked designs that dot Jordan's Azraq Oasis
seem to be positioned in a way that aligns
with sunrise on the winter solstice. A team of
scientists with the Aerial Photographic
Archive for Archaeology in the Middle East
(APAAME) have been investigating wheel
structures (also called "works of the old
men") with satellite imagery available
through Google Earth.

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The wheels vary in their design, with some

showing spokes that radiate from the center,
others with just one or two bars rather than
spokes and still others not circular at all and
instead shaped like squares, rectangles or
triangles, the researchers have found.

The wheels seen in this image are in the

Azraq Oasis and have spokes with a
southeast-northwest orientation, possibly
aligning with the winter solstice sunrise.

BULL'S EYE IN WHEEL STRUCTURES IN

SAUDI ARABIA

Some of the "wheels" found in Saudi Arabia have a bull's-eye

design. (Image credit: Image courtesy Google Earth)

One type of these "wheels" in the Middle

East looks like a bull's-eye, with three
triangles pointing toward the eye and small
piles of stones leading from the triangles
toward the bull's-eye wheel. David Kennedy,
of the University of Western Australia, who
co-directs the project, calls it "a central
bull's-eye tomb with, in this case, three
triangles each with at least a part of a
connecting line of stone heaps running to
the center."

UNEXCAVATED PYRAMID IN EGYPT

Natural or man-made?
(Image credit: Google Earth via Google Earth Anomalies)

This image from Google Earth shows an

anomaly that some believe could be an
unexcavated pyramid. Dozens of anomalies
in Egypt have been detected using Google
Earth in the past Pve years; however, there is
a debate as to whether they represent
natural features or artiPcial structures. More
excavations are needed, but the security and
economic situation in Egypt has limited the
number and size of excavations.

MORE POTENTIAL ERODED PYRAMIDS IN

EGYPT

Eroded Egyptian pyramids or geologic features?

(Image credit: Google Earth via Google Earth Anomalies)

Eroded Egyptian pyramids or geologic

features?

PHANTOM SANDY ISLAND NEAR NEW

CALEDONIA

The mysterious "Sandy Island" (Image credit: via Google Earth)

In 2012, a group of Australian researchers

"undiscovered" an island the size of
Manhattan in the South PaciPc. A mysterious
place called Sandy Island had popped up on
maps, northwest of New Caledonia. It even
showed up as a black polygon on Google
Earth. But when scientists sailed there in
November 2012, they found open water
instead of solid ground.

In an obituary for the island published in

April 2013, the researchers explained why
the phantom landmass had been included
on some maps for more than a century,
pointing to some human errors and a
possible pumice raft.

PENTAGRAM IN KAZAKHSTAN

(Image credit: Google Maps)

On the wind-blown steppes of Central Asia,

in an isolated corner of Kazakhstan, there's a
large pentagram, measuring roughly 1,200
feet (366 meters) in diameter, etched into
Earth's surface. The Pve-pointed star
surrounded by a circle, located on the
southern shore of the Upper Tobol
Reservoir, shows up vividly on Google Maps,
the online version of the more detailed
Google Earth.

Many online comments linked the site with

devil worship, nefarious religious sects or
denizens of the underworld. Instead, the
pentagram turns out to be the outline of a
park made in the form of a star; the star is
marked by roadways that are now lined with
trees, making the star shape even more
distinct in aerial photos.

ABANDONED LAUNCH SITES AT OAHU

DEFENSE AREA IN HAWAII

This Google Earth image shows the Oahu Defense Area in Hawaii,
which was equipped with missiles in open air with earthen
revetments, or embankments, between paired launch sites,
shown here in 1968. (Image credit: Google Earth)

Nike missiles, which were supersonic

surface-to-air missiles, sat ready to launch at
nearly 300 sites across the United States
during a period of the Cold War, from 1954
to the 1970s. Some of those missiles even
carried nuclear warheads. Those missiles
became obsolete with the advent of long-
range intercontinental ballistic missiles
(ICBMs).

David Tewksbury, a GIS (geographic

information system) specialist at Hamilton
College in New York, aimed to preserve a
visual record of the abandoned Nike missile
launch sites before they vanish — either as a
result of being reclaimed by nature,
repurposed by the military or redeveloped.
His plan is to build a geo-referenced
database so that anyone can research the
Nike missile sites through Google Earth.

Here, one of those sites, the Oahu Defense

Area in Hawaii, is shown in 1968. The site
was once equipped with missiles in the open
air, with embankments between paired
launch sites.

SPIRAL ART INSTALLATION "DESERT

BREATH" IN EGYPT

desert-breath (Image credit: Google Earth)

A spiral portal to an alternate universe?

Maybe an alien message? Or an ancient
monument to a supernatural being? This
giant spiral design in the desolate Egyptian
desert, not far from the shores of the Red
Sea, is an art installation called Desert
Breath. In March 2007, Danae Stratou,
Alexandra Stratou and Stella Constantinides
created the 1 million square foot (100,000
square meters) artwork meant to celebrate
"the desert as a state of mind, a landscape
of the mind," the artists say on their website.

LOOTING HOLES IN APAMEA, SYRIA

Apamea looted in satellite imagery

(Image credit: Google Earth screen shot)

The civil war in Syria has imperilled

hundreds of archaeological sites, including
causing damage to all six of the UNESCO
World Heritage Sites in the country, which is
considered one of the oldest occupied areas
of the Earth. Satellites, in particular, have
shown much of this devastation, with some
of the strangest imagery showing
destruction in Apamea. There, Google Earth
images have revealed the entire ancient
Roman city has been pockmarked with holes
dug by looters since the start of the civil war.

"It looks like the surface of the moon,"

Emma Cunlime, an archaeology researcher at
Durham University in England, who has
published a report documenting
archeological damage in Syria, told Live
Science in 2013. "In eight months, the looted
area exceeded the total excavated area."

BLOOD LAKE OUTSIDE SADR CITY, IRAQ

Lake of blood?
(Image credit: Cnes/Spot Image, Digital Globe, GeoEye, Google)

Outside Sadr City in Iraq, at coordinates

33.396157° N, 44.486926° E, lies a blood-red
lake. There is, as yet, no oScial explanation
for the color of this strange body of water.

POLKA-DOT FORMATION ON GRAND

CANYON MADE BY ANTS

This weird polka-dot pattern in the vegetation near a volcano on

the rim of the Grand Canyon could be the work of red harvester
ants. (Image credit: Google Earth)

An odd polka-dot pattern near the cinder

cone volcano dubbed Vulcan's Throne on
the north rim of the Grand Canyon may have
a simple explanation: ants. Turns out, the
desert around the Grand Canyon is home to
red harvester ants (Pogonomyrmex
barbatus).

These pesky critters can create nesting

mounds spanning some 47 inches (120
centimeters) across and are typically
surrounded by bare ground up to 108
square feet (10 square meters), according to
physicist Amelia Carolina Sparavigna, a
specialist in image processing and satellite
imagery analysis at the Politecnico of Torino
in Ital. Sparavigna discusses her theory in a
scientiPc paper posted online on Jan. 11,
2016 - the paper has yet to be peer-
reviewed. The mounds may be responsible
for the aerial pattern of scattered circles,
though Sparavigna says on-the-ground
conPrmation is needed.

ISLAND, IN A LAKE, ON AN ISLAND, IN A

LAKE, ON AN ISLAND NEAR VICTORIA

CANADA

An (Image credit: Digital Globe, GeoEye, Google)

The world's largest "island, in a lake, on an

island, in a lake, on an island" is a narrow,
four-acre strip of land in Canada located at
exactly 69.793° N, 108.241° W. The nameless
island (that little-tilde shaped squiggle of
green) lolls across the center of a small lake,
which is itself encapsulated by a slightly
larger island. That resides inside one of a
series of long Pnger lakes located 75 miles
inland from the southern coast of Victoria
Island, a land feature in Northern Canada.

This little "sub-sub-sub island" would never

have received its strange distinction if not
for careful trolling of Google Earth by map
geeks around the world. In all likelihood, no
human has ever actually set foot there.

BONEYARD AT DAVIS MONTHAN AIR

FORCE BASE IN ARIZONA

The boneyard (Image credit: Google)

The Davis Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson,

Ariz., is where U.S. military planes go to die.
Dubbed "the boneyard," this 2,600-acre
cemetery of steel at coordinates 32
08'59.96" N, 110 50'09.03"W is closed to the
general public, but Google Earth provides a
high-resolution glimpse of what's inside:
virtually every plane the military has pown