World’s Largest Portrait

Tuesday, 4th September 2007 by

Continuing the never-ending stream of "World's largest…" we present The World's Largest Portrait, which adorns the hills of Erzincan in Turkey.

The massive 7.5 square km painting is of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the first president of Turkey until his death in 1938. Despite his passing some time ago, Atatürk's face is still a very popular image and is featured on banknotes, public buildings, schools, and (in this case) mountains.

The image was painted in 1982 by the order of the then-ruling military junta and it took 3000 soldiers just under a month to finish their handiwork.

Over the years the Turkish army have continued to write on the country's hills, more recently writing one of Ataturk's favourite sayings: "Ne Mutlu Türküm Diyene!".

With the second largest standing armed force in NATO (after the much larger USA), perhaps the soldiers have spare time on their hands?

Previously: Portraits Paintings in Google Earth.

Thanks to ssaatci and baharbahar