How Our World Would Look If You Were A Bird

Famous landmarks like the Arc Du Triumph, the Pyramids of Giza, and the Sagrada Familia have been photographed countless times by photographers from around the world, and they are recognizable to most, if not all, of us. But this collection of stunning aerial photographs gives us a bird’s-eye-view of these places, casting them in a totally new light.

Most of the pictures are of places or things that most of us could easily identify right away. The images illustrate just how much a change in perspective can alter. It’s also worth noting that a few of these sites, like the Pyramids of Giza and the hotels in Dubai, were designed with an aerial perspective in mind. The designs of certain Dubai hotels can only be appreciated fully from above, and some theorize that the Pyramids of Giza were meant to be aligned with the stars in Orion’s Belt.

Although taking photographs from a bird’s actual perspective is possible, most photographers prefer taking pictures like these from hot-air balloons, helicopters, gliders, or very tall structures. A few of the photographs also seem to be taken from altitudes that even birds couldn’t reach. None of this, however, detracts from their epic beauty. [40 photos total]

1

Barcelona (Aldas Kirvaitis) # 

2

Central Park, New York City (Sergey Semenov) # 

3

Maze at Longleat, England (archive.4plebs.org) # 

4

Mexico City (Pablo Lopez Luz) # 

5

Venice (Yann Arthus Bertrand) # 

6

Amsterdam (Facebook: iamsterdam) # 

7

Giza Pyramids, Egypt (satimagingcorp.com) # 

8

Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada (thezooom.com) # 

9

Namib Desert, Namibia (SysaWorld Roberto Moiola) # 

10

Chicago ( Robert Elves) # 

11

Tulip Fields, The Netherlands (Normann Szkop) # 

12

Bern (imgur.com) # 

13

Mangroves in New Caledonia (Yann Arthus Bertrand) # 

14

Dubai (Google Earth) # 

15

Dubrovnik (Michaelphillipr) # 

16

Paris (imgur.com) # 

17

Meskendir Valley, Turkey ( Beng Lieu Song) # 

18

Shanghai (imgur.com) # 

19

Cape Town (imgur.com) # 

20

Moscow ( imgur.com) # 

21

Athens (imgur.com) # 

22

Vancouver (Evan Leeson) # 

23

Male, Maldives (Mohamed Abdulla Shafeeg) # 

24

Seattle, Wash. (facebook.com) # 

25

Vatican City (Randy P) # 

26

Bac Son Valley, Vietnam (Hai Thinh) # 

27

Marina Bay, Dubai (airpano.com) # 

28

Rio de Janeiro (Antonello) # 

29

Terraced Rice Fields, China (Thierry Bornier) # 

30

A Lake in Pomerania, Poland (Kacper Kowalski) # 

31

Mount Reinebringen, Norway (imgur.com) # 

32

Nördlingen, Germany (Flickr: leidorf) # 

33

Sydney, Australia (fuckyeahsydney.tumblr.com) # 

34

Vancouver (tourismvancouver.com / Via cupc2012.phas.ubc.ca) # 

35

Turin, Italy (bass_nroll / Getty Images) # 

36

Island in the Maldives (travels.tl) # 

37

Mogadishu, Somalia (Google Earth) # 

38

Orange County, Florida (imgur.com) # 

39

San Francisco (Flickr: csaulit / Photo by Chris Saulit) # 

40

(Judit Kovacs) #