Summary

  • Alien city debunked: The "alien city" in Argentina that appeared on Google Maps turned out to be an oilfield, not extraterrestrial life.
  • Massive face mystery: A massive face in Canada's Badlands Guardian is believed to be a sign from past civilizations, adding to the area's eerie reputation.
  • Airplane graveyard: The largest airplane graveyard in the world was discovered outside of Tucson, Arizona, filled with crashed and scrapped planes.

Although traveling and getting out there is definitely the best way to see the world; we can't always visit all the places on our bucket lists. That means that we're stuck just looking at pictures and checking out Google Maps to see what the place is like and pretend we're on a relaxing trip to the location of our dreams.

Related: 10 Weird Disney Park Urban Legends Visitors Think Are Real

Unfortunately, not everything on Google Maps is so dreamy. Some stuff that their cameras catch is closer to being straight out of a nightmare. Whether it's creepy or just plain confusing, weird things on Google Maps have often been found. With endless urban legends around the world, anything people see that is out of the ordinary can quickly become headlining news.

To see the weirdest things found on Google Maps, keep reading!

UPDATE: 2023/10/09 15:08 EST BY SUNIL PURUSHE

A Few More Crazy Things Found On Google Maps

The list can be never-ending, with Kazakhstan and Finland joining the list of weird stuff on Google Maps for people to see this year and into the future.

16 Alien Structures In Argentina

Refugio Frey, Río Negro, Argentina
Photo by Pablo de Arriba on Unsplash
Refugio Frey, Río Negro, Argentina
  • What appeared to be a vast alien city popped up in Rio Negro, Argentina.
  • This has since been debunked and labeled as the area's oilfield.

Another spooky-looking sight caught by Google Maps was the "alien city" in Rio Negro, Argentina. This appeared to be a vast civilization of extraterrestrial life living in the middle of nowhere but has since been debunked by experts as the country's oilfields.

15 A Massive Face In Canada

Area_around_Badlands_Guardian
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Area surrounding the Badlands Guardian in Alberta
  • A massive face popped up in the geographical composition of the Badlands Guardian in Canada.
  • Many believe this is a sign or spirit from those who used to inhabit the country/area.

One of the stranger things found on Google Maps was the massive face within the Badlands Guardian in Canada. This resembled a human being with lips, eyes, and a distinct face. Many people believe the area is filled with spirits of past civilizations, so that could explain the mix-up.

Canada is home to many weird yet interesting facts, so the unnatural is sometimes common.

14 An Airplane Boneyard In Tucson, Arizona

Silhouette of a cactus at sunset in the desert near Tucson 
Photo by James Lee on Unsplash
Silhouette of a cactus at sunset in the desert near Tucson 
  • This Google Maps image showed a vast collection of crashed planes just outside Tucson.
  • Surprisingly, this has been proven to be real and is the largest airplane graveyard in the world.

One sight found on Google Maps was an "airplane graveyard," which brought people from all across Arizona to a stand-still. Located just outside Tuscon, this airplane grave is filled with thousands of crashed and scrapped planes, giving it a super creepy vibe. There aren't many reports on it to this day.

These 14 weird facts about the Gates of Hell in Turkmenistan might also be intriguing.

13 Phantom Island Off The Coast Of Australia

Dive boats moored on the sandbanks in clear blue water at Hill Inlet, Whitsunday Island, Queensland, Australia
Shutterstock / Andrew Atkinson
Dive boats moored on the sandbanks in clear blue water at Hill Inlet, Whitsunday Island, Queensland, Australia
  • This island appeared on Google Maps just off the coast of Australia.
  • It appeared to glow in the water, resembling a massive 24-kilometer sunken ship.

Another troubling image captured on Google Maps was of a phantom-looking island just off the coast of Australia. In this image, people witnessed what appeared to be a 24-kilometer island in the shape of a sunken ship. Today, no phantom island can be found.

12 A Glitch In New Baltimore

New Baltimore, NY
Doug Kerr from Albany, NY, United States, CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
New Baltimore NY Church
  • This small town of roughly 3,000 people experienced a major glitch.
  • All the buildings in New Baltimore looked as if they were melting.

New Baltimore is a town in New York that has a population of about 3,000 people. This town is not exactly the first one that many people think of when they think of New York. But because of the strange images of this town that the Google Maps camera caught, it's become a pretty well-known one around the Internet.

For unknown reasons, the Google Maps camera had a major glitch when it was driving through New Baltimore to document the town. The pictures that it caught have an eerie purple tint to them, and all the buildings almost look like they're melting. So creepy!

These ten weirdly named US cities might also be worth checking out.

11 Japan's Pigeon People

Tokyo Tower in Tokyo, Japan
Photo by Jezael Melgoza on Unsplash
Tokyo Tower in Tokyo, Japan
  • Google Maps mistakenly turned citizens of West Tokyo into pigeon people.
  • This remains one of the most talked about fails on the map to date.

Japan is home to quite a few unique and unusual things. From strange restaurants to unusual vending machines, it's safe to say that Japan is a special country. When the Google Maps camera was making its way through Japan and documenting the streets, it caught something that's weird even by Japan's standards.

Related: 10 Weird Festivals To Add To Your Bucket List (And What They're All About)

On one street, the camera caught a huge group of people wearing pigeon masks and standing in the street. If you click down slightly to go past this group of people, you can see that they turned to keep watching the camera as it went by.

10 Nagoro Doll Village in Japan

Nagoro Japan
National Land Image Information (Color Aerial Photographs), Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, Attribution, via Wikimedia Commons
Nagoro Japan historical photograph
  • Google Maps captured human-size dolls hanging out in this Japanese village.
  • There are many urban legends surrounding the village of Nagoro.

This town in Japan is definitely not one that's a place that people who are afraid of dolls will want to visit. Nagoro is a village located in Japan that only has a couple dozen residents. But this town has become a hugely popular tourist destination because of the hundreds of non-human residents.

Tsukimi Ayano lived in Nagoro as a child, but her family left when she was a child. When she moved back in the 2000s, she made a doll in the likeness of her father. Since then, she's made hundreds of dolls, many of which were made to look like former Nagoro residents. These dolls may look creepy on Google Maps but have made the village a popular tourist destination.

9 This Message In Memphis

Memphis, Tennessee downtown skyline
Shutterstock
Memphis, Tennessee downtown skyline
  • A spray-painted message appeared on top of a Memphis building.
  • The message read: "Come Downtown And Play"

This image was caught on the rooftop of a building in Memphis, TN. Google Earth is often too far away from the ground to really allow people browsing to spot anything strange, but this message was spray painted onto the roof so large that it's visible from even this distance.

We don't know who wrote this message or why they want people to come to play, but it's safe to say that this is an invitation no one should be RSVPing to. Memphis is a nice place to visit, but keep this downtown invitation off your travel to-do list.

8 A Pattern In The Desert

A sandstone at the Flaming Cliffs, the northern Gobi Desert, Mongolia
A sandstone at the Flaming Cliffs, the northern Gobi Desert, Mongolia
  • Many believe this sighting was because of aliens in the Chinese desert.
  • The pattern was found close to the headquarters of China's space program.

Was this the work of aliens? Or is it something more easily explained? Unfortunately, this question has been puzzling Internet users for years. This unusual pattern was found in the Gobi Desert, near the headquarters of China's space program.

Related: 10 Seriously Strange Things We Can Only Find In China

While many people believe these are simply roads that were built in order to aid in testing equipment, there are also people who believe it's something more out of this world. Could this be China's Area 51? Unfortunately, the world will likely never know.

This UFO watch tower is somewhere alien lovers may also want to go.

7 These Discarded Mannequins

Greenery and city
Photo by Francisco Kemeny on Unsplash
Santiago de Chile
  • This sighting turned out to be mannequins, not human bodies.

At first glance, this scene from Chile seems pretty chilling. It looks like a pile of bodies that were carelessly tossed into a dumpster, right? Fortunately, Google Maps didn't publish the result of a horrible crime on their website. This scene is simply a curbside dumpster where someone discarded a huge collection of discarded mannequins.

We can only imagine what these mannequins were used for in the past and why their owner was throwing them out. But the way they were tossed in the dumpster to be picked up later made this Google Maps sighting pretty strange.

6 Trementina Base

Scientology_Trementina_Sub
USDA, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Scientology Trementina Base NM
  • The Scientology building, aka "Trementina Base," glitched during a Google Map reading.
  • Many locals claim this building and property owned by the Scientologists is creepy.

Scientology is a pretty secretive group. For people who aren't members, it's hard to know exactly what's going on inside their various properties. Trementina is one of the properties owned by Scientology that can be seen on Google Maps in New Mexico.

Related: 10 Strange Resorts From Around The World You Should Add To Your Bucket List

While Scientology may be pretty secretive about what they do, the purpose of Trementina Base is something they have told the public about. According to Scientology officials, Trementina Base was built to preserve the works of L. Ron Hubbard, including books and movies. His writing was even carved onto stainless steel tablets and buried here to keep it safe.

5 This Red Lake In Iraq

SadrCity Iraq
User:notwist, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Sadr City in Iraq
  • The Lago Vermelho Lake turned blood-red in a Google Maps image.
  • Since then, it has returned to its regular color.

Going on vacation to a beautiful, clear lake is definitely a dream vacation for many people. But going to a lake with bright red water like this one in Iraq is not exactly the lakeside vacation that most people dream of.

This bright red lake was spotted on Google Earth in Sadr City, just outside of Baghdad, several years ago. Viewing Lago Vermelho Lake now will show the lake in its original color instead of the eerie red one that it was a decade ago. According to local sources, the lake was turned red by the runoff of a local slaughterhouse. Still, this is pretty scary to see and one of the weirdest things on Google Maps.

4 A Friendly Gathering

Deserted scenic byway in Utah
Deserted scenic byway in Utah
Deserted scenic byway in Utah
  • This Google Maps image showed a group of friends in a remote desert area.
  • Nobody knows the four people or why they were there.

Nothing weird about a group of friends standing in the desert with creepy masks on, right? There's not much known about this Google Maps sighting, but it's definitely a creepy one. These four friends were spotted on Google Maps standing in the road, staring right at the camera.

Although it's likely that these friends just saw that they were driving in front of the Google Maps car and decided to get out and mess with anyone checking out this street, it's still pretty creepy. Who just keeps all those masks in their car?

These UFO houses in Wanli might also spark interest.

3 Pittsburgh's Giant Chicken

Aerial view of Pittsburgh at night
Photo by Venti Views on Unsplash
Aerial view of Pittsburgh at night
  • A giant chicken was spotted on a lawn in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania.
  • The sculpture has since been removed from the property.

Looks like someone is thawing out dinner for their entire neighborhood! This giant chicken was spotted on a lawn by the Google Maps car on the corner of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania's Sampsonia Street.

Unfortunately, this chicken has since been taken out of the lawn and can no longer be seen on Google Maps. But it definitely had people wondering what it was doing there and what it was made out of when it was still on the lawn.

2 Pentagram Of Kazakhstan

Horses in the Assy Plateau, near Almaty, Kazakhstan
Shutterstock
Horses in the Assy Plateau, near Almaty, Kazakhstan
  • 52.47944° N, 62.18631° E - these coordinates can be fed into Google Maps to clearly see the figure in the satellite view.
  • The figure measures roughly 1,200 feet (366 meters) in diameter.

Another one of those strange things on Google Maps is Kazakhstan's Pentagram. In an isolated corner of Kazakhstan, there's a large pentagram etched into Earth's surface. Surrounded by a circle, the five-pointed star is located on the southern shore of the upper Tobol Reservoir and shows up quite clearly while using the satellite view on Google Maps. The entire etched area is dotted with trees, almost as if it has been marked. For the adventurous traveler, this is one of the most unique places to visit in Kazakhstan.

There are almost no other signs of human habitation in the area, with the closest settlement being the city of Lisakovsk, about 12 miles (20 kilometers) to the east.

Related: Visit Googleplex: A Comprehensive Tour Of Google's Headquarters

1 Creepy Scarecrows Of Finland - The Silent People

Silent People Scarecrows
Photo by Anne Nygård on Unsplash
Silent People Scarecrows

On Highway 5 outside of Suomussalmi, Finland, anyone who comes across the scarecrows finds the sight either glee-inducing or terrifying. The figures are covered in straw hair and simple wooden bodies draped with colorful clothing that is changed twice a year.

The work of artist Reijo Kela, the image of Silent People, is one of those strange things on Google Maps and an art installation whose meaning is a mystery. The artist himself prefers the viewers to use their perception to define it. Many find the scarecrows sad or disturbing.