Top 20 CREEPIEST Things Found on Google Earth

#20: Abandoned Launch Sites

For a period of the Cold War, there were almost 300 sites across the United States containing supersonic surface-to-air missiles – some of which carried nuclear warheads. Eventually, these missiles became obsolete with the emergence of long-range intercontinental ballistic missiles. After some time, the deserted locations began disappearing from view, whether repurposed by the military, redeveloped, or reclaimed by nature. Geographic information system specialist David Tewsbury aspires to maintain a visual record of these abandoned launch sites on Google Earth. He plans to create a geo-referenced database on the platform so that people can research them.

#19: S.S. Jassim

In 2003, the S.S. Jassim, a Bolivian cargo ferry, ran aground and sank off the coast of Sudan after striking the Wingate Reef, eventually becoming an artificial reef itself. The ship, which was 265 feet (81 meters) long, was once one of the most visible shipwrecks on Google Earth, with users clearly able to see the large vessel lying on its side. Now, it seems to have sunk entirely. The area around the ship is a popular dive site thanks to the reef, history, and the Red Sea’s clear waters.

#18: Syrian Holes

Syria’s civil war has put hundreds of archaeological sites in peril, and has caused damage to all six of the country’s UNESCO Heritage Sites. Satellite imagery available on Google Earth has revealed destruction in the ancient Roman city of Apamea, with its surface having been entirely pockmarked by looters who have dug holes there. According to Emma Cunliffe, an archaeology researcher who has documented archeological damage in Syria, “In eight months, the looted area exceeded the total excavated area.” Describing the state of the city, Cunliffe said it “looks like the surface of the moon”.

#17: Ariel Castro's House

Between 2002 to 2004, Ariel Castro kidnapped three young women from the streets of Cleveland, Ohio, imprisoning them in his home until 2013. At this point, one of the victims, Amanda Berry, was able to escape with the help of a neighbour, alongside her daughter, who she had given birth to while in captivity. Thankfully, the police were then called, Castro was arrested, and all of the victims were finally rescued after over ten years. When you look up Castro’s former residence, now demolished, on Google Earth and Maps, the location is blurred out.

#16: Sleeping With the Fish

It looks like something right out of a mob movie. This is one grisly looking scene, with what certainly appears to be a trail of blood running up a dock. It absolutely looks like a dead body was dragged across the dock and is going to be thrown in the water. The likely reality is less exciting, but certainly more fortunate for any would-be victim. What the image probably shows is what appears to be two people and a dog. The supposed “blood trail” simply being spots where the dock had gotten damp, perhaps the result of a wet pup who had just gone for a swim.

#15: A Village of Dolls

In Nagoro, Japan, an artist named Tsukimi Ayano realized the population of her tiny village was becoming even smaller. Her solution? She began creating several large dolls, frequently modeled after village residents who no longer lived there for various reasons. Now, there are upwards of 350 dolls in comparison to roughly fewer than 40 residents! The eerie sight can be seen photographed on Google Street View, accessible from Google Earth. For those suffering from pediophobia, aka the fear of dolls, we suggest staying well clear!

#14: Airplane Graveyard

The Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, Arizona, also known as the Boneyard, has a unique purpose, serving as an airplane graveyard. It holds about 4,500 out of date commercial and military planes and is visible on Google Earth. Unsurprisingly, the location is well guarded due to the stored airplanes’ high value. The planes are maintained primarily for their parts, but are occasionally refurbished or sold. Fun fact – this airplane cemetery was used for the background of the “Learning to Fly” music video by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers!

#13: Phantom Island

In 2012, scientists set out on a 25-day expedition to investigate the tectonic evolution of the eastern Coral Sea aboard an Australian research ship, the R/V Southern Surveyor. During the trip, they found that there was an inconsistency on maps of the seafloor topography. The ship passed the location of a supposed island in between Nereus Reef and the Chesterfield Islands, which had previously appeared on Google Earth labelled as “Sandy Island”. However, it was nowhere to be found, despite being included on several nautical charts and maps dated from as early as the latter 19th century.

#12: Human Lips in Sudan

The desert of Sudan is well known for its severe conditions and extraordinary landscapes. On Google Earth, a unique formation is visible in West Darfur appearing to show a natural structure that looks like a massive, luscious set of red lips from a top down view. In actuality, it’s just a cool looking hill formation. Of note, in Sudan, lips actually hold symbolic significance in Sudan, with some tribes practicing body modifications like lip plates or tattoos. Explaining how it may have formed, geomorphologist Josh Roering said the strange formation resembles a dike. He elaborated, “...there’s a dike or narrow unit of resistant rock running through the middle of that ridgeline that erodes more slowly than the surrounding rock and thus sticks out.”

#11: Giant Pink Bunny

Once visible on Google Earth, a gigantic, 55 meter long stuffed pink rabbit once sat on a mountainside in Colletto Fava, Italy. Made in 2005 by a collective of Austrian artists called Gelitin, who named it Hase, it was constructed completely out of fabric and straw. In the mid-2000s, hikers were actually able to climb atop the giant plushie. Unfortunately, as time went on, the elements turned its pink fur a more unappealing beige and the bunny had pretty much disappeared by 2016. There was once an outline visible, but now even that’s gone. Sad!

#10: The “Ghost Girl”

The existence of ghosts will probably be debated for the rest of human history. But regardless of one’s beliefs, there’s no denying that ghostly photos are spooky. A very popular “ghost” can supposedly be seen in Texas’s Martha Chapel Cemetery. A street view photo shows what looks like a pale ghost girl peeking out from behind a tree. Skeptics thought it was nothing but a knot in the tree, or even a real girl being playful with the camera. This was seemingly confirmed by YouTuber John Wells. In the comments of a popular video detailing the photo, Wells claims that the little girl is his daughter. She was supposedly hiding behind the tree while Wells shot a panoramic photo for Google.

#9: The North Sentinel Island Shipwreck

Located in the Bay of Bengal to the southeast of India is North Sentinel Island. It’s primarily known as the home of the Sentinelese, an indigenous group that’s completely isolated from the outside world. They are known for being violent and have even killed outsiders who have approached their home. Found on the northwest shore of the island is an old shipwreck poking out of the water. This is the MV Primrose, a cargo ship that ran aground off the island in August 1981. The crew was stranded for several days and even noticed the armed natives making boats on the beach. Luckily, they were rescued by helicopter before violence broke out, and the native Sentinelese scavenged the ship for iron.

#8: Hell on Earth

Maybe Silent Hill is a real place, and that place is New Baltimore, New York. A small town of roughly 3,000 about two hours north of Manhattan, New Baltimore was once completely ruined on Google Earth. A creepy glitch occurred whenever users would enter the town, making everything look off-colored and droopy. It looked like a cross between a nightmare and a bizarre piece of art, and it only happened within the boundaries of New Baltimore. Once the user left the town via the main road, everything would revert back to normal. While this reeks of Silent Hill, it was nothing but an unfortunate technical glitch. It has also long been fixed, as Google recaptured the town in 2015.

#7: Detroit Shotgun

In September of 2009, the Google car was driving in Detroit when it crossed a house with a green porch. Standing on the porch were five men, one of whom was holding a shotgun. In one image the man is holding the shotgun across his torso, and in the next, he’s clearly aiming it at the Google car. It’s likely that he was just trying to showboat, as no shots were actually fired. This exact house became known to police, unfortunately, as a young child was found deceased in one of its closets a few years after the picture was captured. Those hoping to look at the photo on Google now are out of luck, as the house has since been blurred out.

#6: Pigeon People

One of the most famous images on Google Earth depicts a group of eight people in Western Tokyo wearing pigeon masks and staring at the camera. When the user goes down the pathway and looks back, the pigeon mask wearers are again facing the camera, with a few leaning into the path to be seen. Not much is known about the pigeon people, but it’s assumed that they’re a group of students from the nearby Musashino Art University. It’s a harmless prank, and they’re not doing anything that would get them blurred out. They knew exactly what they were doing, and it worked perfectly.

#5: Desert Glyphs

Scientists working with the Aerial Photographic Archive for Archaeology in the Middle East have been studying a truly bizarre sight. Found in the Azraq Oasis of Jordan are various geometric shapes without a specific pattern. Some are circles with spokes radiating out from the center, while others are more triangular or rectangular in shape. The exact purpose of these shapes are unknown. What we do know is that they are over 8,000 years old and that they align with the sunrise on the winter solstice. It’s amazing to think that our distant ancestors made these glyphs, let alone that they would be seen from a fancy camera in space nearly 10,000 years later. It really puts human history into perspective.

#4: The Nancy Figure

One of the most famous images on Google Earth can be found in the French city of Nancy. Nestled on the balcony of an apartment complex is what can only be described as the creepiest statue in the world. The statue is dark brown or black in color and has long, stringy hair and piercing white eyes. Many people think it looks like some bizarre alien creature, while others think it’s a particularly disturbing tiki statue. The statue quickly went viral owing to its creepiness, but it all proved a little too much for Google. For reasons unknown, the general area of the apartment complex is now completely blurred out. Maybe we all saw something we weren’t supposed to…

#3: Sidewalk Baby

This entry is a rather concerning combination of sad and creepy. The image depicts a baby sitting on the sidewalk on all fours. No one is around, and the baby is situated right next to a darkened Gucci store. The fact that the store is dark and that there’s no one else on the sidewalk seems to suggest that the photo was taken in the early hours of the morning. So why is this poor baby alone? Are its parents hiding just out of sight? Did they leave it outside while they ran into a store, like a dog? Worst of all, did the baby somehow escape from its home? We don’t know the answers, and it makes the photo all the more disturbing.

#2: Kazakhstan Pentagram

Any time a pentagram can be seen from space, you know it’s gonna garner attention. A giant pentagram is etched into the ground at Kazakhstan’s Upper Tobol Reservoir. The reservoir is in the middle of nowhere, and it looks like some serious effort went into carving the symbol, which measures over 1,000 feet in diameter. Creepy though it is, the pentagram may not have an unsettling origin. An archeologist named Emma Usmanova believes that it’s nothing but a park or a campground that was made in the shape of a star. That’s because Kazakhstan once belonged to the Soviet Union, and the USSR was quite fond of using stars in its designs.

#1: Australian Triangle

Back in 2007, Google users came across a rather unnerving sight while exploring the Australian wilderness. Found basically in the middle of nowhere was an eerie triangle dotted with bright lights. Popular images of UFOs immediately spring to mind, and of course, this became a leading theory. Some conspiracy theorists claimed that the triangle was an active UFO that had been captured by a satellite. More practical opinions were also given, like the triangle being a remote antenna for a nearby wind farm. Unfortunately, this indeed seems to be the case; the creepy light triangle is now gone and it has been replaced by a very obvious wind farm.

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What’s the creepiest thing you’ve ever found on Google Earth? Let us know in the comments!