Hole, Jordan, Hole

Rounding out our month of weird Google Earth images: this vacation snapshot from that same fall of 2022.

This is Back Bay Boston, the Mother Church of Christian Science. A few months after making this shot I attended the annual convention of the American Society for Environmental History in the Hilton on the left.

In the 1990s I lived here, walking home from work through the Prudential (center background) and the Mapparium (left midground). Like America the Mapparium has since become elaborate, with tickets and schedules and guides. Back then I just walked right in, and right through, to keep warm.

Images like this are going extinct as Google Earth improves, but you can still have a little fun. Here for example is the cave in Mount Rushmore (or whatever) that Nicolas Cage was looking for, though you can't see the lake.

Robert Wellman Campbell, "Hole, Jordan, Hole," RSS Longa, 24 April 2025, public domain via CC0 1.0. Mapparium | 100 Wonders | Atlas Obscura, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avKlU9nrjEA&t=46s. National Treasure: Book of Secrets - Finding The Entrance (HD) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ix8HhVY0Jg4.