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Photo: Google Earth
Louisa Hearn
July 20, 2006 - 1:51PM
Google Earth, the satellite imaging site that brought us hovering cars, is
now the source of a mysterious new find - this time an unusual man-made
landscape in a remote part of China.
The Chinese site based in the very remote Huangyangtan region, appears to be
a small-scale model of a piece of territory complete with snow-topped
mountains, streams and valleys.
The find, recorded by a German member of a Google Earth community site, has
triggered speculation that the site might have a military purpose.
The Keyhole site hosts discussions among enthusiasts who closely watch the
geographical satellite data presented there and the find was reported by
British IT news website, The Register.
According to comparative data gathered by members of the community, the
rectangular simulation bears an uncanny resemblance to 450 kilometres of
territory occupied by China, but claimed by India, in the Karakoram mountain
range. The Huangyangtan site has a three-kilometre perimeter.
Many of the community posts speculate that the man-made landscape must have
some sort of defence application, given that Huangyangtan has links to the
military including documented accounts of an artillery shooting range
nearby.
Others claim to have spotted barracks and motor pools that might contain
camouflage vehicles close to the man-made terrain.
However the member who discovered the site, code-named KenGrok, said it was
difficult to speculate on what its purpose might be.
"In the end it's often very difficult to tell what you're looking at in
China. From all my crawling around this and other regions of China, it's
hard to tell the difference between military and civilian. And in reality
there's perhaps not a strict division between the two," he said.
Michael Barlow, the deputy director of the Defence and Security Applications
Research Centre, UNSW@ADFA, said although sand-box type models of terrain
were used a long time ago, he had never heard of a defence force building
one on such a large scale.
"About the only large scale models built these days are urban environments -
townships - for 'live' training of troops," he said.
He added that there seemed little point in building a topographical
landscape for military planning purposes when physical data could all be
analysed and measured through a computer.
"You can literally buy a computer game for $100 where you can load any
existing terrain for the purposes of flight path simulations," he said.
When it comes to alternative theories, one member suggested it might be the
"Huangyangtan Farm" project that has been mentioned in some Chinese
literature, while another joked that it could be "China's first miniature
golf course based on the terrain of one of the territories it occupies".
The Google Earth site has become a source for a number of unsolved
mysteries, including the floating car phenomenon in a suburban Perth car
park first reported in January this year.
The vehicle in question appears to hover close to the ground with its shadow
seemingly visible beneath, giving rise to a swag of colourful theories.
While some might doubt the veracity of some of the more inexplicable images
displayed on Google Earth, the company says the data displayed on the maps
was captured by satellite photography and aerial images collected over the
past three years.
