The Ends of the Road

Alan Taylor
September 22, 2015
27 Photos
In Focus

Once again I’ve spent some recent time poring over Google Maps, finding the edges of their Street View image coverage—which seems to grow by the month. I’ve always been drawn to the end of the road, to the edges of where one might be allowed to travel, whether blocked by geographic features, international borders, or simply the lack of any further road. Gathered below is a virtual visit to a few of these road ends around the world (or at least as far as the Street View drivers cover)—borders, shorelines, dead ends and overlooks from Madagascar to Colombia, from Japan to the United Arab Emirates. See if you can guess the locations before reading the captions. (And, see also a previous Ends of the Road photo essay.)

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A baobab tree stands near a trail just outside the small fishing village of Andavadoaka, Madagascar. See it mapped. #

© Google, Inc.

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Las Lajas Sanctuary, an ornate church built in the canyon of the Guáitara River in Ipiales, Colombia. See it mapped. #

© Google, Inc.

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Sailing in the Mozambique Channel alongside a small island off the coast of Madagascar, near the village of Morombe. See it mapped. #

© Google, Inc.

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In the desert of southeastern Mongolia, near the town of Zamiin-Uud, very close to the border with China. See it mapped. #

© Google, Inc.

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An abandoned structure in Zabaykalsk, Russia, right on the border with Inner Mongolia, China. See it mapped. #

© Google, Inc.

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A Google Maps Street View camera strapped to a camel in the dunes of the Liwa Oasis in the United Arab Emirates. See it mapped. #

© Google, Inc.

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A Google Maps Street View camera on a snow machine atop Crystal Mountain North in Washington State’s Cascade Range. See it mapped. #

© Google, Inc.

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A road crew stops the Street View vehicle on highway 373 in Manitoba, Canada. See it mapped. #

© Google, Inc.

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Camels mill about where a road ends as its pavement is covered by sand in the desert near Sharjah, United Arab Emirates. See it mapped. #

© Google, Inc.

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A remnant of World War II, the Voroshilovskaya Batareya, on Russky Island, Primorsky Krai, Russia. See it mapped. #

© Google, Inc.

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A Street View driver pushes his vehicle after it got stuck in the sand (visible lump in center of photo) on Transit Road, outside Kachikau, Botswana. See it mapped. #

© Google, Inc.

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