Many of us are familiar using Google Maps and its Street View feature that shows streets and roads in 360-degree images over seven continents, 65+ countries, and over seven million miles. Through the use of their Google Street View Fleet, they are able to document not only streets, but local businesses, restaurants, and beyond. With Treks, Google has gone off the traditional roads and streets and have captured images of the greatest wonders all over the world.
Google has gone far and wide to capture some of the most incredible places across the globe, including the Samburu National Reserve in Kenya, an elephant habitat dedicated to preserving the species from poaching. Trek have even ventured to the Himalayas, home of the Sherpas and of Mount Everest, the planet’s tallest mountain. For those interested in historical architecture, viewers can even walk through the Taj Mahal, India’s crown jewel.
While Google employs the use of its Street View cars for the accessible streets and roads around the globe, but for many of these locations, Google must use other members of their fleet. The Street View Trekker is intended for locations where cars, trikes, trolleys, and snowmobiles are unable to access. The Trekker is a backpack that is equipped with a camera on top and because of its portability, Google can access places that are only available to be seen on foot. The first example that can be seen of the Trekker’s camera work is the tour of Arizona’s Grand Canyon.
Google Trek’s newest adventure begins in the Arab world, where have documented Petra, a town built over 2,000 years ago and famous for being built entirely of stone. This is not the first time that Google has ventured to the Middle East for their Treks, Google has captured the wonders of the Pyramids of Giza. As the last standing standing wonder of the ancient world, Google has preserved the images of the great pyramids for your own self-guided tour online.For the Petra project, Google collaborated with Queen Rania of Jordan and even narrated the promotional video for the launch.
The video features one of the most recognizable landmarks of Petra, the Al-Khazneh, also know as the treasury, which features the structure being carved from the sandstone rock. Al-Khazneh has been seen in various films, the most notable includes Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
While the trailer for the Trek features mainly the Al-Khazneh, the guided tour on Google shows that Petra is an even more impressive historical landmark. Make sure to have headphones while navigating through the city of Petra as Google as each spot has a narration filled with historical facts and information. After the treasury, the tour takes you to the Street of Facades, giant tombs of the city officials and the wealthy citizens of Petra. Continuing on the journey is 8,000 seat theatre of Petra that draws a similar look to the Roman theatres. In between these landmarks are various smaller landmarks that viewers can go through and can view these places with Google’s 360-view camera. Finally, the last stop on the trip is Al-Dier or the monastery, which stands as one of Petra’s largest monuments. At 8 meters tall, the monastery is a feat need to be seen through Google’s guided tour.
To view the entirety of Google’s treks, you can view all of them on their website and explore the best the world has to offer. For those who are looking to become real explorers, you can even volunteer to become a Google Street View Trekker to share your favorite places. All you have to do is sign up with this Google Form and maybe you can share the next biggest wonder of the world.
