Page 39 - (DK) I Can’t Believe It! 2

STRANGE BUT TRUE! 37

FAST FACTS
Street View covers Green areas have
yet to be added.
over 5 million miles
(8 million km) of road
across more than 50
countries, and continues
to add more images. In
addition to cities and
towns, the project has Blue areas of
captured panoramas of the map are
iconic sites such as the covered by
Street View.
pyramids of Giza and
Everest Base Camp.

Google Maps has been providing
Google Street View online since 2007.
The panoramic views it provides are
made of still photographs, often captured
by a car-mounted camera. But the Liwa
Desert in the United Arab Emirates is not
the average street view. These sprawling
dunes needed a unique photographer, and
an animal already adapted to desert
life was the obvious choice.
Camel’s camera

Traditionally called “ships of the desert,” camels are

now vessels for photographing the world. Ten-year-
old Raffia captured the Liwa Desert on a camera

attached to her hump, becoming the first creature
to assist Google in its quest to map our planet.

US_036_037_309600_Camel_and_camera.indd 37 19/12/17 12:55 pm