Amazing Interactive World Satellite Map!

[On the Road]

Courtesy of National Geographic Mapmachine. Actually you can choose from several different types of maps and go pretty anywhere by clicking on the world map.

You can see the streets in London or topographic photos of the Himalayas or the Gobi. Zoom in and out.

I can't seem to post the links to actual photos, but try it out. A few of the places I looked at on the "GlobeXplorer Aerial Imagery" or the "World Satellite Map":

Brugge, Belgium
Cape Horn, South America
Nouadhibou, Mauritania (Atlantic coast of the Sahara)
Urumqi, Western China
Kabul, Afghanistan
Cairo, Egypt
Ross Ice Shelf, Antarctica

just click around and zoom. There are some limits to detail in remote places, but in a major city you can sometimes recognize individual structures (like the Eiffel Tower). It's an eyeful.

[LynzM]

1. Don't see the actual maps...

on my work PC. Will have to wait 'til I get home to check it out, I guess? Looks cool, though!

[CaptainClark23]

2. nice, I can see my house

thats pretty sharp, thanks for the link.

[burrowowl]

3. Thanks

for the link

[MattPinNC]

4. Thanks ...

this tool is awesome ...

[felonious thunk]

5. very very cool

looks like I'm not getting anything done this afternoon!

[On the Road]

6. Ah, Another Map Afficionado

I can get out a world atlas and stare at topographical maps of Algeria or Baffin Island all day. I don't know what it is -- wanderlust or something. I just want to see what all these places lood and feel like in real life.

I was browsing in Daedalus Books and saw a travel book on the Kerguelen Islands, a French possession way the hell out in the Indian Ocean that I had never heard of. I had to buy it, and am already hooked. Kind of like a Southern Newfoundland.