Table of Contents
- Google Earth
- Google Maps
- Drones
- Bird’s Eye View
- The stories come to light
Google Earth
The satellite imaging market was worth $4.2 billion in 2023 and is projected to grow by 11% a year between 2024 and 2032. Google Earth is the most reliable tool to find fascinating places. Satellite imagery can reveal potentially abandoned buildings. Viewers look for signs of abandonment, such as overgrown vegetation, rusty roofs, lack of maintenance, and no vehicles parked nearby.
You might be disappointed after checking the building (it hasn’t been abandoned), but dedicated and hardworking explorers are eventually rewarded. Google Earth is a potent tool; it can even show the remains of crashed planes in mountainous regions or shipwrecks. If they interest you, check out this list of creepy Google Earth coordinates.
Google Maps
Google Maps is also a helpful tool. It works by typing in a region you would like to explore, then clicking “Layers” and choosing “Satellite” to switch to “Satellite View.” Zoom in and out around the map, looking for collapsed walls, holes in roofs, fallen trees, general wasteland areas, missing tiles on roofs, and other signs that a site might be abandoned. Follow rivers or railway tracks when using Google Maps because that is where commerce took place historically. You might find an abandoned factory or mill.
Use “Street View” for a ground-level view of a site that might have been abandoned. Drag the “Yellow Person” icon onto the street to do this. This makes exploring access points possible.
Choose “Save” to mark potentially abandoned locations and organize saved ones using lists. You can give them titles like “Potential Urbex Sites” or something more general like “Abandoned Buildings.”
Drones
Drones can provide a bird’s-eye view of vast areas and reveal sites that are challenging to see from the ground. To remain unnoticed and avoid cables, fly the drone as high as possible. Consider investing in a quality aircraft system. In the US, 791,597 drones were registered as of October 2024.
Bing Bird’s Eye View
While not as current as Google Maps, Bing has a fantastic tool called “Bird’s Eye View.” This angled, high-resolution imagery is taken from low-flying planes.
Bing imagery is indispensable for anyone who wants to identify a potentially abandoned location. Select the area you want to explore and click on the “Road” menu in the top right to switch to Bird’s Eye View. You will see “Bird’s Eye” on the list of map views available.
Users can create a custom collection of locations via Bing Maps, but they must sign in with a Microsoft account. Bing’s tool tends to work best in urban areas. Statistics on urban exploration are limited due to its informal nature, but some YouTube videos have over 10 million views. Most explorers are aged 18–35. The tool is less likely to be available in rural locations. However, it’s much faster than a top-down satellite view when it is available.
Keep in mind that Bird’s Eye View or satellite imagery might be outdated. Some sites seem intact on satellite view, but they are rubble when you arrive.
How hidden stories come to light
Hidden stories slowly come to light after satellite imagery provides details about abandoned places. We mentioned plane crashes earlier. You might not know the story of the Armenian Yak-40’s crash. On August 1, 1990, this civil aircraft crashed during a flight from the Armenian capital of Yerevan to Stepanakert in Azerbaijan. All crewmembers aboard and passengers died instantly. The official story was that the plane plunged because the pilots and controllers made mistakes, but there was a lot of talk about the possibility of an Azer attack at the time.
An in-depth investigation followed, in which Russian, Armenian, and Azer experts took part. They concluded the plane had gone off course to save time and crashed after hitting a rock. However, no one believed the story. The version was pushed by governments, so people were forced to repeat it. The engine’s condition proved that the plane had been shot down, but the engine disappeared shortly after the report. As satellite technology improves in 2024 and beyond, a lot of misconceptions are cleared.
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