Where On Google Earth?

Lots of people got this one right. It is the largest island, inside of a like, on an island, in a lake, on an island. It is Crater Lake in Taal Volcano in the Philippine island of Luzon. Tall was voted one of the Seven Wonders of the Philippines.

I was a bit late in getting the answer for this one out because I was in Tasmania and the internet there wasn’t that great.

Getting this one right:

• Ron Schott
• Nathan D
• ACG
• Stephen Hope
• Karel
• Dave Land
• Martha
• Brian T
• Keven Lew
• Ben Bayer
• Matt Manolides
• Andy McAllister

Image by Storm Crypt

Image by Ryan Cordell

This one was a bit more tricky. Especially if you don’t live in North America. The answer is Point Roberts, Washington, aka the appendix of America. When the original boundry between the US and Canada was established at the 49th parallel, there was a stub of land below the 49th parallel which wasn’t connected to the rest of the US. If you look at the satellite image, you can see a horizontal line which is the border between the US and Canada. There are also bits of the US you can’t get to via land up in the Lake of the Woods in Minnesota. I once drove up there just to see what it was like.

Getting this one correct:

• Brian T
• Ben Bayer
• ACG
• Karel
• Dave Rennie
• Matt Manolides
• Ron Schott

I couldn’t resist this one. It has been in the news lately, but I didn’t know it was so far along as to appear on Google Earth. It is “The World”, a manmade archipelago off the coast of Dubai. You can own your own part of the world for only a few million dollars. Personally, I’d invade my neighbors and try to reconstruct ancient empires. Or, I’d get my neighbors to play enormous games of Risk.

Getting this one right, a record number of people:

• Wedny
• Matt Manolides
• ACG
• Andy McAllister
• Kal…the Ameristani
• Ben Bayer
• Brian T
• Kevin Lew
• Karel
• Roland
• Ron Schott
• Stephen Hope
• Martha
• Deion

We are starting out the new decade of contests with a softball. The answer is the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul (not Constantinople), Turkey. For almost 1,000 years, the Hagia Sophia was the largest church in the world. It became a mosque after the fall of Constantinople and now is a museum. If you are interested in Byzantium, there is an excellent podcast lecture series called “12 Byzantine Rulers” which gives a great overview of the Byzantine Empire.

Getting this one correct:

• Brian T
• Matt Manolides
• Chris Christensen
• Andy McAllister
• Ron Schott
• Florian Jenn
• ACG
• Stephen Hope
• Karel
• Ben Bayer

Please expect some overlap in future contests. I can queue up contests in advance, but answers require me to do sit down and go through answers. This will also me to get contests out in a more timely manner as I am traveling.

Image by Javierly.com

Image by RK Catch

Note: The photo is NOT oriented to true north. Also, try to be specific in your answer.

This was a harder one. Only four people got the correct answer. The answer is Iquitos, Peru which is the largest city in the world which cannot be accessed by road. If you go to Iquitos, you have to fly or travel by boat.

Getting this one correct:

• Ron Schott
• Spathiinc
• Karel
• ACG

The leaderboard will be reset starting with contest #21. The winner of the first decade #11-21 is Ben Bayer with 9/10.