Top-secret Google Maps locations you CAN see – including Area 51 and nuclear submarine bases

GOOGLE Maps offers users a peak at satellite snaps of almost every corner of the globe – including a handful of top-secret locations.

While many military bases, prisons and other high-security facilities are blurred out on the digital mapping service, others are visible for all to see.

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The US President’s holiday home

Google MapsCamp David is a rural retreat visited by U.S. presidents since the 1940s[/caption]

Located 60 miles north of Washington, D.C., Camp David has served as a retreat for U.S. presidents since the early 1940s.

The rural complex in the wooded hills of Catoctin Mountain Park, Maryland, comprises a scenic mountainous area of 200 acres (81 hectares).

It is surrounded by maximum-security fencing and is closed to the public. You can’t even stop your car on the public roads that wind around it.

Despite all of its high-security protocols, the compound is visible in satellite imagery provided by Google Maps.

Nuclear sub base

HM Naval Base Clyde is the Royal Navy’s main presence in Scotland

HM Naval Base Clyde is the Royal Navy’s main presence in Scotland.

Also known as Faslane, the site on Gare Loch in Argyll and Bute is the navy’s base for nuclear submarines and hunter-killer submarines.

They’re part of the Trident Deterrent Missile System. The UK has a stockpile of approximately 225 nuclear warheads.

As a result, Faslane is under 24-hour armed guard and the public are not allowed to go there. It is, however, visible on Google Maps.

Area 51

Google MapsArea 51 is one of the world’s most famous military bases[/caption]

Area 51 is possibly the world’s most famous military base and is shrouded in mystery and secrecy.

It is a remote air base in the South Nevada desert, 83 miles (134km) north-northwest of Las Vegas, in the west of the USA.

The site is believed by many to hold extra-terrestrial secrets but is in fact used to develop cutting-edge aircraft.

While it’s illegal to fly over Area 51, the site is visible on satellite images – including those available on Google Maps.

North Korean gulag

Google MapsA gigantic gulag in North Korea said to house 10,000 prisoners[/caption]

North Korea was a blank blob on Google Maps for years until the online service released detailed satellite imagery of the reclusive state.

As well as cities and parks, Google’s citizen cartographers even helped the tech giant map some of the communist nation’s infamous gulags.

One in northeasern North Korea is known as Hwasong Gulag.

It spans 212 square miles and is believed to house 10,000 people, many of them political prisoners.

UK chemical weapons lab

Google MapsPorton Down in Wiltshire in the UK’s leading chemical weapons research facility[/caption]

Just a stone’s throw from the famous Stonehenge monument lies the UK’s leading chemical weapons research facility.

Porton Down is a science park in Wiltshire home to the Ministry of Defence’s Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL).

For over a century, the site has been one of the UK’s most secretive and controversial military research facilities.

Founded in 1917, Porton Down was where Britain carried out its initial development of deadly nerve agents.

The UK ended its offensive chemical and biological weapons programmes in the 1950s, and the site is now used to research deadly diseases like Ebola.

Samples taken there in 2018 were analysed to confirm that a Novichok nerve agent had been used to poison former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter.

Sahara desert base

Google MapsA military base in the middle of the Sahara desert is visible on Google Maps[/caption]

Google MapsAerial images show the facility in Niger, near the Libyan border[/caption]

A military base tucked away in the middle of the Sahara desert is another high-security location visible on Google Maps.

Aerial images show the facility in Niger, near the Libyan border, seemingly surrounded by landmines.

A landing strip, buildings, vehicles and a perimeter fence are also visible.

The camp, known as Aerodrome Madama, is a French military airfield located in a border settlement on the northeast frontier of Niger.

The Niger military maintains a garrison of about 100 troops at the site, which was previously a French colonial fort built in 1931.

The French government operates a forward operating base at Madama and as of 2015 had up to 250 soldiers operating there.

In other news, little-known photographs of the 9/11 terror attacks are available to view on Google Earth.

Apple announced last month that it’s working on a new documentary about 9/11 featuring never-before-seen footage.

And, Facebook has launched new “prayer tools” which offer US megachurches the chance to raise funds and listen to prayer requests.

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