Back in school, our imaginations were amazed by the stories that only the Great Wall of China is visible from space. It turns out that people have created many impressive structures that can be seen from a height of hundreds of kilometers. True, from 400 km - the highest point of the ISS orbit - man-made structures are not visible without the help of optics, but if you go down lower, you can see a lot of interesting things. The orbit of the American shuttles was about 200 km, and numerous satellites fly even lower.
Everything that astronauts admire can be found in today's Top 10 man-made objects on Earth that can be seen from space.
10. Kuibyshev reservoir
This artificial reservoir with an area of 6.45 thousand km? is the second largest river reservoir in the world. It is also called the Zhiguli Sea. The purpose of the reservoir is irrigation, power generation, fishery development and other important tasks.
9. Nazca Lines
Supposedly, these mysterious geoglyphs were built between 400 and 650 AD. The lines are located in the south of Peru on the Nazca plateau. One of the hypotheses suggests that these lines are signal lines and are intended for the landing of alien ships. Therefore, there should be nothing surprising in the fact that they can be seen from space.
8. Lake Volta
The world's largest man-made reservoir is located in Africa on the Volta River and has an area of 8.5 thousand km?. The lake occupies 3.6% of Ghana's area. More than 5.5 million people live on the shores of this reservoir.
7. The name of Sheikh Hamad
The eccentric Arab billionaire sheikh Hamad bin Hamdan Al Nahyan built the inscription "HAMAD" on the private island of Al-Futaisi. The height of each letter is 1 km, the length of the inscription is more than 3 km. The first 2 letters represent water-filled shipping channels.
6. Quarry Peacock tail
These heaps of the world's largest quarry, located in Chile, are clearly visible from space. The mine is located in the Andes at an altitude of 2840 meters, where copper and molybdenum are mined. The depth of the quarry is 900 meters, the length is 4.3 km.
5. Horse Sultan
This earthen sculpture was created from coal slag from a mine in Cairfilly, Wales. Of course, from the ISS it can be seen only with the use of optics, but on the satellite images the Sultan is seen very well.
4. Firefox logo
In the fields of the American state of Oregon in 2006, a circle was created in the form of the logo of the then young Firefox browser. The logo snapshot has become one of the most popular places on Google Earth. Original ads like this really helped attract new users to the browser.
3. Great pyramids of Egypt
The giant tombs of the ancient pharaohs are between 138 and 146 meters high. Some researchers believe that, like the Nazca lines, the pyramids are beacons for aliens. Be that as it may, they can be really easily discerned from near-earth orbit.
2. Artificial island Palm Jumeirah
Bulk Islands in Dubai are included in many ratings and tops. Palm Jumeirah - the largest of the man-made islands and one of most expensive structures in the world... The sixteen branches of the palm island and the surrounding embankment are perfectly visible from orbit.
1. Great Wall of China
This grandiose structure is almost 9,000 km long, including the branches. Construction of the wall began in the 4th century BC. and continued slowly until 1644. The wall is indeed visible from orbit with the naked eye, but only under ideal weather conditions.