Russia

On this day: Zond 5 Rocket Launched

On this day in 1968, Russia launched the Zond 5 rocket from Baikonur. It was the first spacecraft to travel around the moon and return to Earth; serving a mainly scientific purpose, the expedition carried two tortoises and assorted insects…

Posted by
Monday, 15th September 2014

On this day: Russian Beard Tax

Three hundred and sixteen years ago, Emperor Peter I of Russia was in an ongoing battle with the Slavic elites about modernising the country and making it more 'European'. One casualty of this campaign was … the traditional long beard!…

Posted by
Friday, 5th September 2014

On this day: St Isaac’s Cathedral Was Inaugurated

On August 19, 1768, St Isaac's Cathedral in St Petersburg was inaugurated. An estimated ten thousand tree trunks were embedded in the swampy ground to provide a stable base for the immense structure. Unfortunately the primitive spray-painting method used to…

Posted by
Tuesday, 19th August 2014

Top Ten World’s Tallest Statues

The roster of the world's tallest statues is dominated by Buddhist figures, with most of the top ten (actually 11 because of a tie) being representations of the Buddha or Guanyin. While we've looked at Very Large Buddhas twice before…

Posted by
Thursday, 24th July 2014

The contradictory position of satellite censorship

In the early days of online mapping, sensitive locations were often censored for security reasons. Examples include military installations, government buildings, royal residences, prisons, power plants and more. However in many cases blurring happened on one service but not another.…

Posted by
Thursday, 8th May 2014

Sochi Winter Olympics and Paralympics

A year ago we previewed the venues which were under construction for the upcoming Winter Olympics and Paralympics in Sochi, Russia. With the Opening Ceremony taking place on February 7th1 - to be followed by the Paralympics Opening Ceremony on…

Posted by
Wednesday, 5th February 2014

Welcome to Google Sightseeing!

Google Sightseeing takes you on a tour of the world as seen from satellite or street views using Google Maps. Our team of authors present weird and wonderful sights as suggested by readers.

Like this site? We published a photo book of the best entries, you should buy a copy.