Photos: The best of Google Earth

What did you say the architect's name was? A housing development in San Diego, just west of the city centre, across the bay on the North Island.

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The Hollywood sign, California, USA.

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The distinctive orange boiler suits of prisoners, clustering in the recreation yard at San Quentin prison, California.

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A man in Las Vegas about to open his car door.

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Not a shark in the pool of a Bond villain but rather a dolphin in Siegfried and Roy's Secret Garden at the Mirage hotel in Las Vegas.

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Nellis Air Force base, Nevada - better known to UFO conspiracy theorists as Area 51. On this image you can clearly make out the multiple runways where planes such as the B2 Stealth Bomber were tested.

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Mysterious green circles in the desert just a few miles from Area 51.

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Monument Valley in Arizona, USA

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'We know where you live,' says Google to archrival Microsoft. This is Microsoft's headquarters in Redmond.

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Leaning towers of Manhattan. The Empire State building appears to be leaning to the left, while a neighbouring building two blocks southwest appears to be leaning to the right.

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London's Trafalgar Square, swamped with visitors for an event being staged between the fountains.

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Silverstone Grand Prix circuit in Northamptonshire, UK.

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Blackpool, one of the most famous seaside resorts in the UK, and the Blackpool Tower, an equally famous landmark. Paris has nothing on it.

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A farmer mows a profane field between Barnsley and Doncaster in the North of England.

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A more traditional crop pattern, just down the road from the profanity on the previous page - is this the work of aliens or another farmer playing a prank? We think it's probably the latter.

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Over Tower Bridge and adjacent to the Tower of London is Silicon Towers, home of the silicon.com team.

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Possibly London's most controversial landmark, the Dome which occupies a kink in the Thames as it flows through East London.

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An airplane in the skies, southwest of Godalming, Surrey, UK.

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A German U-boat on mud flats in Kent, southeast England.

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The first 'smiley'? The gardens of Versailles, outside Paris, France.

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A topless woman sunbathing in Den Haag, Netherlands.

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The pyramids on the outskirts of Cairo. The tourist board may choose to shoot them looking into the desert but Google Earth reveals just how close the sprawling city is to these ancient wonders.

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Palm Island, Dubai

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Oil fields burning, south of Basra in Iraq.

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Mount Everest and the Himalayas seen from the outer reaches of the Earth's atmosphere.

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The Forbidden City it may be but very few places escape Google Earth's gaze.

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Uluru, formerly Ayer's Rock, in the Northern Territory, Australia.

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Wolf Creek meteorite crater, Australia.

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The Great Barrier Reef as it would appear from the outer reaches of our atmosphere.

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The ancient monuments of Teotihuacan, Mexico.

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