Explore a Map of Hamburg’s Miniatur Wunderland in Street View

Not content virtually mapping the entire Earth, Google is now making simulations of simulations. As Street View Program Manager Sven Tresp reported on the Google Maps Blog, the company has taken Street View cameras and floated them through Hamburg’s famous Miniatur Wunderland. The cameras captured a miniature Las Vegas replica, street squares, Hamburg’s River Elbe, and a railway, to name but a few.

“For those looking to relive their childhood dreams of being a conductor of their own railway and playing with dollhouses, we have a Street View surprise for you: Hamburg’s famed Miniatur Wunderland, the world’s largest model railway, has come to Google Maps,” Tresp writes. “Boasting 13,000 meters of track and more than 200,000 tiny citizens, the museum includes tiny replicas of a variety of German provinces, famous places in America, and even a fully-functioning airport!”

To capture the Miniatur Wunderland, Street View partnered with Ubilabs to build an “entirely new—and much smaller—device.” Ubilabs outfitted tiny vehicles with tiny cameras so that they could drive the roads and train tracks, mapping the highly detailed miniature.

Aside from the scenes described above, the mini Street View cameras captured a soccer match, an Oktoberfest celebration, the Neuschwanstein Castle in Bavaria, a fire department at work, and a plane departing Khuffingen’s airport. The cameras also captured Grand Canyon valleys and Mount Rushmore, and a number of other scenes.

If Jorge Luis Borges and Jean Baudrillard—writers and thinkers enamored with maps and simulations—were still alive, they’d most certainly find much to like in this simulation of a simulation.

Click here to see the full Street View gallery.

Via Peta Pixel

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