NASA Confirms Massive Kazakhstan Geoglyphs

"In 2007, Dmitriy Dey, a Kazakh economist and archaeology enthusiast, was poking around on Google Earth when he found something strange: an enormous geometric pattern extending over 900 square feet across the ground in Kazakhstan. His interest piqued, Dey would spend the next year discovering 260 more of these mysterious formations, made up of squares, crosses, lines, and rings carved into the earth or constructed with mounds of dirt. But to this day, it's unclear exactly what the figures are and why they were constructed. Now, NASA has released satellite photographs of some of the figures open to the public, signaling the beginnings of their involvement into the investigation..."  (More...)

This amazing nautical "View from Above" solves a mystery that is over 150 years old!

The HMS Erebus was lost and all of its crew members perished when the ship became entrapped in the polar ice in 1846.  A recent expedition that melted a hole in the polar ice and sent remotely operated vehicles down to the suspected wreck not only returned amazing photographs, but brought artifacts back up to the surface, solving a 150+ year old mystery of what happened to the HMS Erebus, and where her final resting place could be found.  Read more about this amazing discovery here:  LiveScience.com

The Atacama Giant of Chile is over a thousand years old!

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19°56'57.18"S 69°38'0.87"W

The Atacama Giant is located in the Atacama Desert near "Cerro Unitas", Chile. It is the largest prehistoric anthropomorphic figure in the world with a height of 86 meters and represented a deity for the local inhabitants (Atacameno Tribe) from 1000 to 1400 AD.

This creepy ship graveyard has a sinister explanation.

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20°52'6.44"N 17° 2'50.79"W

This has got to be one of the eeriest places on the planet. The ships pictured here at Nouadhibou, Mauritania (formerly Port-Étienne) are just a few of the hundreds of ships that have been abandoned here to rot in a ship's graveyard. For years, Mauritanian harbor officers were so corrupt, that they let ships be discarded in the harbor in exchange for wads of cash. Disposing of ships legally can be quite expensive for a company, so during this period, lots of unwanted ships ended up here... over 300 in all.

The Curiously Circular Pyramids of Guachimontes

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20°41'41.91"N 103°50'3.65"W

Guachimontes, near the town of Teuchitlán in the state of Jalisco, Mexico, is the site of some very unique circular stepped pyramids. Built between 300 BC and 900 AD, the round pyramids were surrounded by buildings, and may have held temples at their peaks.

Check out this Giant Gobi Desert Glyph... from a glider!

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39°45'6.33"N 98°13'2.00"E

Full-scree This gigantic glyph (3300 feet long by 2100 feet wide) can be found in the desert just west of the city of Jiayuguan in Gansu, China. It also happens to be a few hundred yards from the beginning of the Great Wall of China, or at least, its remnants. The glyph is of modern construction, and my guess is, it's a pictogram for "Jiayuguan," designed to be seen from the air. It is probably no coincidence that Jiayuguan also happens to be the home of one of the largest glider centers in the world.

The 10th Hole Golf Club has a secret you can only figure out from the air!

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36° 2'13.61"N 115° 5'8.66"W

When you get to the 1oth hole at the Legacy Golf Club in Henderson, Nevada, you can see tee boxes in the shapes of the four suits common to a deck of cards - hearts, clubs, diamonds, and spades. The course was designed by golf course architect Arthur Hills.

Sculpture Garden, Near Cardiff, Wales

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51°22'56.71"N 3°20'19.36"W

Just south of Cardiff International Airport in Wales lies a sculpture garden consisting of several large glyphs constructed of gravel. There is also a circular standing stone sculture.

How did this landlocked aircraft carrier end up in this little lake?

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31° 6'18.33"N 121° 0'46.76"E

Sure looks like a landlocked aircraft carrier, doesn't it? But in fact, it is a full-sized replica constructed entirely out of concrete, part of a Chinese theme park near Quingpu (Shanghai Province) called "Oriental Land." Here's a picture of it from ground level.

Sometimes, apparently, the aircraft carrier also has a submarine parked next to it. The park features a lot of military displays, including MIG fighters, helicopters, artillery pieces, missiles, and ship replicas.

Chand Baori - An Amazing Indian Stepwell

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27° 0'25.90"N 76°36'25.96"E

In the village of Abhaneri, near Jaipur, Rajastan (India) there is a stepwell called Chand Baori. It is one of the oldest, largest, and deepest stepwells in India. It was built in the 9th century and has 3500 narrow steps and 13 stories and is 100 feet deep. The architecture reminds one of an M.C. Escher lithograph.

Amphitheater in a Coal Mine, Germany

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51°33'0.57"N 6°52'37.66"E

At the very top of the "mining tip" of a gargantuan pile of rubble from the Halde Haniel Coal Mine in Bottrop, Germany sits an amphitheater built in 1999, which seats 800 people. Along the upper ridges of the man-made caldera sit lines of over 100 painted wooden "totems" made from railroad ties and set into concrete bases. The Prosper-Haniel coalmine was created in 1974 and is still in operation.

Tetrahedron, Bottrop-Batenbrock, Germany

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51°31'37.00"N 6°57'39.23"E

High atop a 65 meter high coal mine spoil tip in Bottrop-Batenbrock Germany sits a steel construction called the "Tetrahedron" (or in German, "Tetraeder"). It is 60 meters high, and has three viewing platforms for those brave enough to climb the winding stairs to them. The flat gravelly area below the Tetrahedron allows for geoglyphs to be placed by artists, and then viewed from above. The mandala (seen above, left) was replaced briefly with "aliens" (above, lower right) in 2006.

Harney Basin Glyphs, Southeast Oregon

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42°33'44.44"N 119°32'35.08"W

These geoglyphs can be found west of Flook Lake, southeast Oregon, in the Harney Basin. The glyphs on the right seem to be a series of five nested concentric rings, with the largest being close to 1000 feet in diameter. There are a multitude of other glyphs nearby, though it's difficult to determine what they are supposed to represent. It's possible the glyphs were formed using the alkali salts readily available from the dry playa lake bed, in much the same way as the chalk geoglyphs of the british isles.

Mysterious Hart Mt. Antelope Refuge "Hotdog"

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42°32'42.94"N 119°29'54.69"W

I'm sure there is a very logical and simple explanation for this, whatever it is. What it looks like, is a giant hotdog. It is 355 feet long, and 150 feet wide, situated in the center of what appears to be a playa lake bed (with alkali salt flats) on or near the Hart Mountain Antelope Refuge, Oregon. The site is approximately 20 miles east of Chandler State Park. Anyone have any ideas?

Hombre del Rio, Cordoba, Spain

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37°52'46.04"N 4°46'28.24"W

In April 2006, the "Hombre del Rio", or Man of the River, mysteriously appeared in the Guadalquivir river. Even city officials claimed that no one had gotten approval to place the large sculpture of a bathing man in the middle of the river! It was later learned that it was the product of Cordovan artists Rafael Cornejo and Francisco Marcos. It is built of polyester, and weighs 2,000 kilograms. It's 5 meters long and affixed to the river bed with an anchor chain 12 meters long.