Spotting ancient walls at 17,000 MPH

Great Wall of China
Photo by Tianxiaozhang.

“You know, you can see it for miles – goes on for miles, over the hills and everything. But, so does the M6. Do you know what I mean? You can see that for miles. And you go, ‘Great. And that does a job. You can drive on that.’” Thus did an unimpressed Karl Pilkington of An Idiot Abroad describe the Great Wall of China, allegedly the only manmade object visible from space.

Which raises and interesting question: Why can’t you see the British M6 motorway from space? Or can you? For that matter, can you actually see the Great Wall?

Great Wall of China: Only Manmade Object Visible from Space?

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