# Largest man made 'object' ever **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 25, 2005, 7:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largest-man-made-object-ever/300993 "2005-04-25T07:50:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![TheLoadedDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@TheLoadedDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheLoadedDog)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2005, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largest-man-made-object-ever/300993/21 "2005-04-26T00:31:35Z")
> [@SentientMeat](#): > > I guess it depends on how wide the interpretation of the word “object” is. Mankind has been systematically clearing vast forests for tens of millennia: one could arguably call England’s patchwork quilt of fields or the the sub-Saharan Sahel a “man-made feature”. And is a _city_ not a man-made object? If so, Tokyo and Mexico City are pretty big by area (although I once, bizarrely, heard that Mount Isa in Australia was, somehow, enomous in this respect??) Mount Isa is a mining town of about 22 000 population. However, it is believed to be the largest city in the world in terms of administered area. The city limits are way out in the wilderness. So it’s purely a paper exercise, and any claim to being the World’s Biggest City are drawing a rather long bow. ---
**Author:** ![Antonius\_Block](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/51bf81/32.png) [@Antonius\_Block](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antonius_Block)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2005, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largest-man-made-object-ever/300993/22 "2005-04-26T00:34:51Z")
[continuing **Jon the Geek** ’s hijack] If **Cartooniverse** is using a Web Page Filter (either within Safari or external), certain features may need to be disabled to get Google Maps to work. I use Firefox on a Windows machine, with [Proxomitron](http://www.proxomitron.info/index.html) running from the System Tray to shield me from Web page ads and ugly dancing thingies. When I go to Google Maps, I have to **disable** Proxomitron in order to see the map or aerial view. [/hijack] ---
**Author:** ![Reeder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Reeder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reeder)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2005, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largest-man-made-object-ever/300993/23 "2005-04-26T00:44:52Z")
> [@](#): > > Kansai International Airport (KIX) is the world’s first ocean airport, built on a landfill island in Osaka Bay, Japan. Opened in 1994, KIX was a modern engineering marvel, built entirely as an artificial island. Because the site is built upon compacted fill, it suffers from subsidence, sinking 2-4 cm per year. The Kansai terminal is 1.7 km long, and was designed by world famous architect Renzo Piano. KIX is linked to the mainland by a 3.7 km long bridge, and provides air service for nearby cities of Osaka, Kobe, and Kyoto. Four months after opening, the airport was severely tested by the magnitude 6.7 Kobe Earthquake; it survived with only minor damage, and provided continuous operation during the relief efforts. This simulated natural color ASTER image was acquired on September 19, 2003 and covers an area of 48.5 x 55.5 km. Totally manmade. [http://asterweb.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery-detail.asp?name=Kansai](http://asterweb.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery-detail.asp?name=Kansai) ---
**Author:** ![Antonius\_Block](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/51bf81/32.png) [@Antonius\_Block](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antonius_Block)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2005, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largest-man-made-object-ever/300993/24 "2005-04-26T01:02:19Z")
> [@TheLoadedDog](#): > > Mount Isa is a mining town of about 22 000 population. However, it is believed to be the largest city in the world in terms of administered area. The city limits are way out in the wilderness. So it’s purely a paper exercise, and any claim to being the World’s Biggest City are drawing a rather long bow. The Mount Isa City Council claims to administer [42,904 square kilometers](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Isa), but even if it _is_ the largest city in area, it’s still wrong to deduce that it’s the largest man-made object. If human-defined boundaries make something “man-made”, then [Russia](http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/rs.html) is a heck of a lot bigger than Mount Isa! Incidentally, the “Mount Ida vs Switzerland” comparison that is usually trotted out is that Mount Ida’s city area of 42,904 km² (rather than the area of a single mine as **Vagus** said in post #4) is greater than Switerland’s [stated 41,290 km²](http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/sz.html). [BTW, did anyone else’s neckhairs bristle when the link that **mhendo** unearthed was found to say “It is undoubtedly the largest man-made object in the world and can be seen from space.”? To Dopers, them’s fightin’ words!] ---
**Author:** ![TheLoadedDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@TheLoadedDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheLoadedDog)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2005, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largest-man-made-object-ever/300993/25 "2005-04-26T01:07:20Z")
> [@Antonius Block](#): > > [BTW, did anyone else’s neckhairs bristle when the link that **mhendo** unearthed was found to say “It is undoubtedly the largest man-made object in the world and can be seen from space.”? To Dopers, them’s fightin’ words!] Of course it is! Every Doper knows mankind has never been to space. What? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![andrewdt85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/71e660/32.png) [@andrewdt85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andrewdt85)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2005, 6:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largest-man-made-object-ever/300993/26 "2005-04-26T06:39:50Z")
> [@Antonious Block](#): > > If Cartooniverse is using a Web Page Filter (either within Safari or external), certain features may need to be disabled to get Google Maps to work Oh no, it works fine on my PC. My question is why Google Maps isn’t on the Google Directory list. I’d be interested if there was another list of Google Engines somewhere I wasn’t seeing, just cause you never know when you might find something on the internet you never knew existed. ---
**Author:** ![SiouxChief](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d6d6ee/32.png) [@SiouxChief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SiouxChief)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2005, 7:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largest-man-made-object-ever/300993/27 "2005-04-26T07:51:02Z")
> [@Padeye](#): > > The largest movable objects are probably cuise ships though I think the Hindenburg had more total volume. Someone already commented on the relative size of cruise ships, but I have to comment on the relative size of the Hindenburg The [Queen Mary 2](http://cruises.about.com/cs/shipprofiles/a/queen_mary_5.htm) has a volume of over 36,000,000 cubic feet. The [Hindenburg](http://www.ciderpresspottery.com/ZLA/greatzeps/german/Hindenburg.html) measures in at a little over 7,000,000 cubic feet. Still, it was an awesome airship. Check out the picture on the Hindenburg page for a size comparison of the Hindenburg, a 747, and the Titanic. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2005, 11:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largest-man-made-object-ever/300993/28 "2005-04-26T11:31:39Z")
> [@andrewdt85](#): > > Oh no, it works fine on my PC. My question is why Google Maps isn’t on the Google Directory list. I’d be interested if there was another list of Google Engines somewhere I wasn’t seeing, just cause you never know when you might find something on the internet you never knew existed. If you look right next to the title on Google Maps, you’ll see the word “Beta” in small grey letters. So the Maps function is still in development, but has been released in order to allow testing. I’m sure it will be added to the Google Directory once they’re happy that any bugs have been ironed out. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2005, 11:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largest-man-made-object-ever/300993/29 "2005-04-26T11:46:40Z")
> [@andrewdt85](#): > > Oh no, it works fine on my PC. My question is why Google Maps isn’t on the Google Directory list. I’d be interested if there was another list of Google Engines somewhere I wasn’t seeing, just cause you never know when you might find something on the internet you never knew existed. > [@mhendo](#): > > If you look right next to the title on Google Maps, you’ll see the word “Beta” in small grey letters. So the Maps function is still in development, but has been released in order to allow testing. I’m sure it will be added to the Google Directory once they’re happy that any bugs have been ironed out. To see all the stuff which Google currently has, click the “more \>\>” link on the home page above the text entry box; you’ll see the list of the many, many things they do above and beyond the basic “Web Images Groups News Froogle Local” links on the home page. On that “more” page at the bottom of the first section, left column, you’ll see a link “Labs”. That takes you to the list of new stuff under development, which includes the map feature. ---
**Author:** ![Uncommon\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Uncommon\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uncommon_Sense)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2005, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largest-man-made-object-ever/300993/30 "2005-04-26T12:03:51Z")
> [@Reeder](#): > > Totally manmade. > > [http://asterweb.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery-detail.asp?name=Kansai](http://asterweb.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery-detail.asp?name=Kansai) That’s pretty amazing, but there seems to be other structures in that very bay that dwarf the ariport. There is an island subdivision in the upper left area that is very expansive. ---
**Author:** ![NutMagnet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ea5d25/32.png) [@NutMagnet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NutMagnet)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2005, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largest-man-made-object-ever/300993/31 "2005-04-26T13:38:27Z")
I always thought it was the cookie in _Bruce Almighty_ ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2005, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largest-man-made-object-ever/300993/32 "2005-04-26T14:18:31Z")
Quote: Kansai International Airport (KIX) is the world’s first ocean airport, built on a landfill island in Osaka Bay, Japan. Opened in 1994, KIX was a modern engineering marvel, built entirely as an artificial island. Because the site is built upon compacted fill, it suffers from subsidence, sinking 2-4 cm per year. The Kansai terminal is 1.7 km long, and was designed by world famous architect Renzo Piano. KIX is linked to the mainland by a 3.7 km long bridge, and provides air service for nearby cities of Osaka, Kobe, and Kyoto. Four months after opening, the airport was severely tested by the magnitude 6.7 Kobe Earthquake; it survived with only minor damage, and provided continuous operation during the relief efforts. This simulated natural color ASTER image was acquired on September 19, 2003 and covers an area of 48.5 x 55.5 km. > [@Reeder](#): > > Totally manmade. > > [http://asterweb.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery-detail.asp?name=Kansai](http://asterweb.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery-detail.asp?name=Kansai) A good candidate. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largest-man-made-object-ever/300993.md?page=1)