Category: Reveal

This is the site of one of the worst industrial disaster in history. Early in the morning of December 3, 1984, the Union Carbide plant at this location spewed methyl isocyanate (MIC) which contaminated the nearby villages. Over half a million people were exposed, most while they were still asleep and had no way to know to escape the gas. Estimates of almost 16,000 deaths between 2300 who died immediately and those who perished from short and long-term effects of the gas.

By Luca Frediani uploaded by Simone.lippi, CC BY-SA 2.0, Link

The Wikipedia article on the events of that night is a pretty fascinating read, full of stories of corporate negligence, greed, and failure to own up to their obligations. Efforts to spy on and quell those in the country crying out for justice. Discussions of whether or not this was negligence or deliberate sabotage.

Also, a 2014 movie starring Martin Sheen and Kal Penn called “Bhopal: A Prayer for Rain” details the disaster and Union Carbide’s response from the viewpoint of a kid working for the company.

Those who located the site were:

• Rob de Wolff
• Garfield
• hhgygy
• Phil Ower
• Walter_V_R
• Paul Voestermans
• Abcdefg Hijkl
• Yakubi Dergahi

And after the hint:

• Hilde Lambeir
• Robin
• Martin de Bock

On 30 November 1872, 4000 intrepid individuals watched the national football teams of England and Scotland play on this site to a 0-0 draw, marking the first-ever official international football match, a precursor to France’s victory last Sunday at the World Cup final.

Scotish illustrator William Ralston was on hand and captured these images:

 

Those who found it before the hint:

• Walter_V_R
• hhgygy
• Garfield
• Phil Ower
• Rob de Wolff
• Abcdefg Hijkl
• Lelie
• Paul Voestermans
• Jeather
• Yakub
• Martin de Bock

And after the hint:

• Andy McConnell
• Chris Nason
• Sandworm
• David Kozina
• Robin

Thus ends this series. Congratulations to Garfield, hhgygyg and Phil Ower with perfect 20-for-20 scores this series!!

Also, check out the newly updated KML file with all the locations covered by WhereOnGoogleEarth updated with this series!

Shahrisabz, historically known as Kish or Kesh, was the birthplace of Timur, a 14th century emperor of a large swath of south-central Asia, including all of what is now Iran and Afghanistan, as well as parts of India, Syria and Turkey.

This portion of the city is home to his Summer Palace Ak Saray. And, of course, there HAS to be a statue, right?

There is a tomb here as well for Timur, though he never occupied it and two unknown people are there now. His oldest son, Jehangir, is buried in the mausoleum complex to the lower right of the image (just right of the octagonal fountain at the bottom).

By Faqscl – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link

Those who found the site included:

• Abcdefg Hijkl
• hhgygy
• Garfield
• Phil Ower
• Walter_V_R

And after the hint:

• Gillian B
• Hilde Lambeir

This location is a small part of the largest coral reef in the western hemisphere and the 2nd largest in the world after Australia’s Great Barrier Reef.

By Andy Blackledge – https://www.flickr.com/photos/hockeyholic/5657508801/

Until very recently, this UNESCO World Heritage Site was on the “List of World Heritage in Danger”. It was removed because of measures that were taken by the Belize government to restrict oil exploration in the region and protect mangrove forests.

Those who swam with the turtles included:

• hhgygy
• Abcdefg Hijkl
• Rob de Wolff
• Garfield
• Walter_V_R
• Phil Ower

And after the hint:

• Hilde Lambeir
• gscrp
• Yakub

Much to the chagrin of the citizens of Lincoln City, Oregon, the Roe River, which flows from the Giant Springs to the Missouri River, it the official holder of The Guinness Book of World Record as “Shortest River”.

At 201′ (61 m), getting the Roe recognized was the brainchild of 5th Grade teacher Susie Nardlinger (who, oddly enough, taught at “Lincoln Elementary” in nearby Great Falls) and her 1987 class. This surpassed the “D” river in Lincoln City (about 750 miles / 1200 km away) whose previous record length came in at 440′ (130 m).

The people of Lincon City were not about to just let this go without a fight. In addition to claiming that the Roe was nothing more than a drainage ditch that some elementary students measured as a class assignment, they also claimed that their beloved D was, in fact, only really about 120′ (37 m) long (at “extremely” high tide). The Roe proponents shot back that the D was just an ocean water backup. This went back and forth until eventually the fine people at Guinness threw up their hands in disgust and discontinued the category just to end the argument, leaving the Roe as the permanent title holder.

“Oh, I saw the river the whole time…”:

• Garfield
• Phil Ower
• hhgygy
• Abcdefg Hijkl

“Ahhh, now I see that little stinker…”:

• LawnBoy
• Andy McConnell
• Walter_V_R
• Luís Filipe Miguel
• Sandworm
• rob de wolff
• gscrp

The Comedy Carpet in Blackpool was this week’s contest, and generated lots of correct answers. For the prize this week, based on the comedic theme, we will be deducting 2 points from anyone who got it right before the hint and 1 point for those after the hint. In essence, this means you would have been better to not answer or get it wrong.

Now that I have everyone’s attention, it was all a joke – and points will be assigned as normal.

Created by artist Gordon Young, and designed in collaboration with Why Not Associates, the Comedy Carpet is a celebration of comedy on an extraordinary scale. Referring to the work of more than 1,000 comedians and comedy writers, the carpet gives visual form to jokes, songs and catchphrases dating from the early days of variety to the present. Sited in front of Blackpool Tower, the 2,200m2 work of art contains over 160,000 granite letters embedded into concrete, pushing the boundaries of public art and typography to their limits.

Those who found this included (all before the hint):

• Walter_V_R
• Sandworm
• hhgygy
• Abcdefg Hijkl
• Garfield
• Gillian B
• Rob de Wolff
• Phil Ower
• Chris Nason
• Glenmorren
• Eloy Cano
• Jeather
• Hilde Lambeir

El Helicoide is a building in Caracas, Venezuela. It has the shape of a three-sided pyramid and is built on a hill. It serves as a facility and prison belonging to the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service (SEBIN).

It did not start out as a prison. Designed by the architects Pedro Neuberger, Dirk Bornhorst and Jorge Romero Gutiérrez, the idea included a commercial center and exhibition of industries, a 5-star hotel, a park, a club of owners and on the seventh level a show palace. The building would include a 4 km long ramp spiralling around the hill, allowing vehicles to enter the building and park inside of it.

Topped by a dome designed by Buckminster Fuller:

Under construction:

For more info: http://www.amusingplanet.com/2017/06/el-helicoide-shopping-mall-that-became.html?m=1

Found for 2 points:

• Walter_V_R
• Eloy Cano
• rob de wolff
• Glenmorren
• Garfield
• hhgygy
• Phil Ower
• Sandworm

And after the hint for 1:

• Ashwini Agrawal
• gscrp
• Paul Voestermans
• BC11

We are still having issues with the commenting feature for the site. It appears that the notification going back to the commenter is not working. If you entered a comment, but do not see your name in the list, let Andrew (andrew64giles@gmail.com) or Paul (pfranson@gmail.com) know so we can investigate further.

Nestled on the south end of Moosehorn National Wildlife Refuge, this small lake is, well, not famous at all. Probably the most common use of the knowledge of the existence of it is a pun.

The name is Pond … James Pond. It’s really too bad that the zip code isn’t something like “00700” or “00007” or something, but no…

Now, before you break out the torches and pitchforks and come after your humble game masters, keep in mind that Andrew and I (and, for a while, Charlie) have been keeping you going since Contest #371 in November of 2014. Sometimes it’s hard to find really good stuff (if you’d like to see things from this side of the game, come join us – and see the challenges we face setting challenges for you!) While this contest has been running, we found quite a few and will be queuing them up. The rest of the series should have you happily bouncing around between easier and slightly less difficult/stupid ones like this one was.

And, in the interest of expanding the site, we have reinstated the ever-popular, ever-requested, and ever-hard-to-keep-up KML list of all sites (up to #550) which we will be updating at the end of each series. You’ll find it on the left side menu at the bottom (here’s a quick link to the file).

So, back to the pond. There’s just not a lot of info about it. Seems to be a good place to catch some bass. No idea who it was named after. Mr Google is not our friend here – especially since there are a series of video games called “James Pond” about a fishy spy.

Those who found the site and are still scratching their head about what we could have possibly been thinking when we selected this freaking site included:

• hhgygy
• Garfield
• Phil Ower

And those who somehow freakishly got enough about the joke from that hint included:

• Walter_V_R

As a side note, we wanted to give you an update on the problem with seeing a confirmation of your submission. We have identified that it is a fallout of 1) the fact that we have an older WordPress theme that isn’t being updated anymore, and 2) a recent WordPress update to enforce GDPR provisions. We are looking at options, and you might see the look and feel of the site change a bit in order to fix it, but fix it we will! If anyone out there has any experience programming WordPress themes and some time on their hands, we’d love the help!!

The round hole in this week’s contest image is the site of the not-built Chicago Spire, which was intended to be one of the tallest residential buildings in the world. However, due to financial issues, it was shelved and all that is left is s hole.

The hint referred to the rotation of 2.4 degrees of each of the 150 floors, giving a total rotation of 360 degrees from bottom to top.

In recent days, plans have been announced for the construction of two tall towers in this location.

Click here to read Chicago Tribune article from May 15, 2018

The proposed tower:

All there is now:

Found for 2 points, despite the fact that it’s just a hole in the ground:

• hhgygy
• Garfield
• Ben Bayer
• Phil Ower
• Walter_V_R
• Eloy Cano
• Sandworm
• rob de wolff
• Glenmorren

After the hint:

Buganda, the region of Uganda that includes Kampala, was until 1962, a separate kingdom. The last 4 kings of Buganda are buried here.

Until 2010, it looked like this:

During the night of May 16, 2010, the structure, which consisted of wooden poles, reed wattle and daub, thatch and palm fronds, was destroyed by a suspicious fire.

The Ugandan government, various NGOs, and private donations are working to rebuild the tombs.

Those who found the site before the hint included:

• hhgygy
• Walter_V_R
• Garfield
• Phil Ower

And after the hint:

• gscrp
• Rob de Wolff
• Eloy Cano
• Sandworm
• Jeather