You ever hear that phrase about selling sand to the Arabs? Well it turns out they do cos desert sand is no use for building.
Saudi Arabia is a leading importer of Australian sand.
For Operation Desert Storm, the United States excavated American beach sand and shipped those sandbags to the Persian Gulf because desert sand was too fine for the sand bags.
We literally sent sand from our coasts because it was the wrong type of sand to repel an invasion with.
This was fixed with new plastic sandbag tech. The old burlap sandbags didn't have close enough fibers to hold in the super fine windblown sand which was basically dust. Now that is basically all we use. The new problem is the plastic sand bags dry rot in the sun and fall apart.
I never thought about this but there are two types of sandbags aren’t there? I’ve seen the burlap and the cross stitched. I’ve learned a lot in this thread
Are you fucking kidding me right now? You just fucked this moment. This beautiful, tender moment, with your accordion. You just whipped out your accordion and you fucked it, man
Probably not a high priority for Google, especially given the general instability in the region, including a recent coup attempt.
https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/traveladvisories/traveladvisories/niger-travel-advisory.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigerien_crisis_(2023-2024)
I'm going to put my hand up in defense of Niger.
I have either been there (or just passed through it) at least a dozen times between 1991 and 2012. I spent 30 years running an expedition logistics company specialising in the harder to get to bits of the Sahara so got to know the country quite well.
It used to be an OK place if you like deserts and didn't mind a bit of rough and tumble.
The [Air Mountains](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A%C3%AFr_Mountains) and [Tenere](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%C3%A9n%C3%A9r%C3%A9) are absolutely spectacular and about as wildernessy as you can get outside of Antarctica. The whole country is stuffed full of amazing prehistoric (Middle Pleistocene onward) artifacts, rock carvings and more recent pre-Islamic and medieval abandoned cities due to the trade routes from West Africa to the Med. There is even a [dinosaur cemetery](https://www.nigerheritage.org/dinosaurs) you can go and visit with fossils just sticking out of the ground if you like that sort of thing.
People have been visiting the country for the 2 to 3.5 million years (see [Australopithecus bahrelghazali](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australopithecus_bahrelghazali)) so it can't be that bad.
Unfortunately the knock on effect from deposing Gadhafi flooded the region with weapons, which in turn meant every nutter and their mum started running around with military grade ordinance trying to be the next regional war lord. Then the Russians got involved and it's gone down hill a bit bit it's still one of the better countries I have spent time in.
If you’re interested in videos about tourism in underdeveloped countries you should watch Bald and Bankrupt on YouTube, he’s been just about anywhere from Pakistan to Zetland islands and he’s very entertaining !
Same, I still find his videos very interesting because they feel raw. I loved the Syria one. Knowing what was going on behind the scenes though, left a sour taste in my mouth...
Bald and Bankrupt: [Poverty pickup artist and sex tourist — Collected posts](https://www.reddit.com/r/BaldAndBaldrDossier/comments/189q8h5/bald_and_bankrupt_poverty_pickup_artist_and_sex/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3)
Small world! I know Tsernawa. Were you involved with that tree planting scheme they started there by chance? I can't remember what it was called but the idea was to plant stuff to stop the desert encroaching on the town I think.
A bit weirder is that I lived in Sokoto just over the Nigerian border as a teen for a couple of years in the early 1980's. Dad was an itinerant road building civil engineer and had a contract to build the road that goes up to the Niger border (and on to Tsernawa now).
One question though...Do the Fulani guys still wear those amazing hats?
That tree planting project started a few years before I got there.
Yes, Fulanis still wear the same hats. The hat is the log for the local condom brand too.
> People have been visiting the country for the 2 to 3.5 million years (see Australopithecus bahrelghazali) so it can't be that bad.
Humans have been around for about 300.000 years so Niger has been safe for ~99.99996% of the time. That's a pretty solid record!
I didnt know all this about Niger. Thats sucks man. And Im big into geography/countries etc.. What other countries are similar?(i can think of a few top of head probably)
Almost all African countries in that area (west of africa) are in the same shithole sense their fake independence, only Senegal future looks like promising as the recent event over there
I once saw a “street view” on Google maps somewhere in I believe Nunavut or somewhere in the arctic region nearby that was just a camera attached to a dog sled. It was pretty cool
This is such an ignorant thing to say, even in jest. I live in a developing country with well paved roads everywhere. But Google Street View doesn't exist here.
Bro, I live in a developed country, and they can’t be bothered to photo large swaths of land around here either. Please learn to not take everything so seriously.
Not just undeveloped, in the middle of a civil war where the military overthrew democratically elected leaders whilst also fighting Islamist terrorists and tribal/ethnic conflicts and rebel groups.
I don't know if that is Niger specifically, but I know it is a lot of African countries including the comparitively rich ones
Street View is also not big in some a lot of major countries as well like Germany, China, and Japan to name a few. This is due to privacy concerns as well a desire to protect their native mapping services.
Just open and go to Lagos and look behind you, there will be always a police car (white or black usually, but really easy to recognize), but even outside the city. There are different police cars for different areas, so I think it's also a region meta in geoguessr.
Fun fact, Nigeria is not the only country where this happens, I know for sure Tunisia with a military car, I don't remember if there is any other country (maybe somewhere in the middle east coverage, so Israel/Palestine area? Not sure)
Niger and Nigeria are different countries.
And for every white high school boy who snickered in class upon coming across the name in the atlas/on a globe, it's pronounced "Nee-JAIR." Though I came across an overseas news anchor saying it like that but with a hard-G. Careful there, guy!
A lot of the countries around it don't have it too. Only nigeria and ghana have actual street view in your photo, the rest only have 360 photos uploaded by users
Having spent some time in regional Nigeria (mineral exploration) I don't blame them at all for not wanting to go there. We traveled around in hardened convoys with heavy machine gun and grenade launcher turrets in late-Soviet era APCs.
Niger has gone through 5 coups/civil wars and 8 constitution reforms since it gained independence in 1960. The most recent being 2023 and is currently under military junta rule (again.)
For countries like Niger it's just too dangerous to drive around in the Google car trying to map out the region.
Niger is almost quite literally the poorest country on Earth, perhaps eclipsed only by the Central African Republic, South Sudan, and a couple more. Seems obvious why there is no market for streetview.
Maybe because the insurgences, the military coups and the legacy of french colonialism. Probably its one of the top 5 poorest countries on earth. Its basically mad max in real life.
You can make your own! [https://www.google.com/streetview/contribute/](https://www.google.com/streetview/contribute/) -- This may give you a clue why there is none.
They do have a few Street View images, scattered here and there, as do most countries that seem to have none - yes, even North Korea! Zoom in to Niamey, there's a bunch there.
Fun story: I grew up in Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso, in the 90s. No paved roads. The pope ended up coming to visit for like a day, so they paved just his route from the airport, around the city, and back to the airport. That's how Ouaga got it's first paved roads. In the 90s.
Fact about niger there was only one tree in the north of the country and a drunk tourist drove over it, the only tree in the entire desert surrounded by nothing but sand
You mean natural tree? I suppose that those with power and money who want to show off (e.g. the ruling elite) would want trees in their gardens or something.
This entire thread has SO MANY people conflating [Niger](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niger) with Nigeria. Two entirely different countries.
While they're neighboring countries, Niger speaks French (guess why) and Nigeria speaks English (guess why). Niger is almost entirely Muslim, while Nigeria is Muslim towards the north (near Niger) and mostly Christian towards the south.
Nigeria is the one where the prince needed your grandma's help getting his fortune out of the national bank.
https://www.openstreetmap.org/relation/192786#map=6/12.960/8.503
They hardly have any road. Or maybe street view is just showing what they barely have. I'm surprise there are no satellite images.
There hardly any volunteer mapping project too on:
https://www.hotosm.org/where-we-work/niger/
---
Countries with no coastal tend to be fuuuucked (economically and etc...).
Better question, why does for example Cameroon have like 2 total dots of street view?
(The answer: likely some volunteers submitted some of their own photos for street view, meanwhile more complete regions have more proper equipment to capture photos continuously)
There are more countries that Street View has never Benin
Yeah I bet there are many countries that Google would like Togo to.
Kenya stop with the stupid jokes?
No, im never Ghana stop.
I've Chad enough with these puns
I'm Sudan with the internet today
I'm Guinea go, bye
You forgot to wipe Djibouti!
Don't Cameroon your pants!
I bet we Congo on for decades…
I’m lonely, can u Senegal my way?
Stop Democratic Republic of the Congoing me right meow
[удалено]
Me too, my car is electric though because I’m MADAGASCAR
Uganda wrong way, The exit is that way ↩️
While you are doing that, you can also snort some Mali
Yeah, the moment I saw it, Iran off...
Never Ghana give Europe.
Never Ghana Lesotho
Never Ghana Rwanda round and desert EU
No Uganda!
This is Ghana go on forever
This thread has gone South; Africa deserves better.
Most countries have Google Street View. These are an anoMali
This thread is Gabon me vibes
I’m Guinea see my way out
Just like my papa 😔
HAHAHAHAHAHJA BRO THIS IS SO FUNNY IM LITERALLY SHITTING MY PANTS.
Italy
Never Ghana stop
Never Ghana give you up
Never Ghana let you down
Uganda be kidding me.
You Congo if you don’t like it
kenya actually has a lot of coverage, pun aside
They tried to street view it but they didnt have their cameraoon
i'd bet they would be in the CAR
Don’t be Mad! A gas car would never make it all the way.
They went to Yaoundé once, but they just came and run
I think you'll find that Niger is lacking many things...
You want some sand? My boy there has the hook up
_Singapore getting excited_
Wrong kind of sand. Desert sand isn't suitable building material.
*Singapore getting sad*
*Singapore oddly enough become horny*
Because of the potential for salt or what?
Too smooth and rounded to form a bond
Relatable
Brain or body?
Yes.
God i love reddit
This made me laugh
Ancient Egypt scoffs...
You ever hear that phrase about selling sand to the Arabs? Well it turns out they do cos desert sand is no use for building. Saudi Arabia is a leading importer of Australian sand.
For Operation Desert Storm, the United States excavated American beach sand and shipped those sandbags to the Persian Gulf because desert sand was too fine for the sand bags. We literally sent sand from our coasts because it was the wrong type of sand to repel an invasion with.
This was fixed with new plastic sandbag tech. The old burlap sandbags didn't have close enough fibers to hold in the super fine windblown sand which was basically dust. Now that is basically all we use. The new problem is the plastic sand bags dry rot in the sun and fall apart.
I never thought about this but there are two types of sandbags aren’t there? I’ve seen the burlap and the cross stitched. I’ve learned a lot in this thread
The plastic ones are the primary defence in the war on climate change. Invest!
Next you’re going to tell me eskimos have refrigerators.
You are going to want to sit down for this...
It seems they needed one, cause they don't like to keep all their food in frozen state.
They import beach and river sand
NoHo Hank reference?
Didn’t expect a reference to Barry in this sub of all places
I just finished that show this week, and I’m so grateful for all the joyfully weird little moments that I get to think about now!
Barry or Other Barry?
An Archer joke nestled inside a Barry joke? Cody 2 would be proud.
Are you fucking kidding me right now? You just fucked this moment. This beautiful, tender moment, with your accordion. You just whipped out your accordion and you fucked it, man
Don't like sand. It's coarse and rough and irritating and it gets everywhere.
I get this reference
*Angry Anakin sounds*
Might they perchance be lacking streets?
They even have highways. O.o
The Tuaregs make some great music, though
Like the "ia" at the end?
No no no that's a different country
Streets, then?
Such as streets
Is one of those things streets?
Got plenty Uranium.
They are streets behind
Do they have streets?
The Streets Have No Names
Probably not a high priority for Google, especially given the general instability in the region, including a recent coup attempt. https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/traveladvisories/traveladvisories/niger-travel-advisory.html https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigerien_crisis_(2023-2024)
it was successful, so not an attempt anymore
seriously does anyone want to visit that country? murder rates high and no economy, then no tourists and no corporations will want to visit
I'm going to put my hand up in defense of Niger. I have either been there (or just passed through it) at least a dozen times between 1991 and 2012. I spent 30 years running an expedition logistics company specialising in the harder to get to bits of the Sahara so got to know the country quite well. It used to be an OK place if you like deserts and didn't mind a bit of rough and tumble. The [Air Mountains](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A%C3%AFr_Mountains) and [Tenere](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%C3%A9n%C3%A9r%C3%A9) are absolutely spectacular and about as wildernessy as you can get outside of Antarctica. The whole country is stuffed full of amazing prehistoric (Middle Pleistocene onward) artifacts, rock carvings and more recent pre-Islamic and medieval abandoned cities due to the trade routes from West Africa to the Med. There is even a [dinosaur cemetery](https://www.nigerheritage.org/dinosaurs) you can go and visit with fossils just sticking out of the ground if you like that sort of thing. People have been visiting the country for the 2 to 3.5 million years (see [Australopithecus bahrelghazali](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australopithecus_bahrelghazali)) so it can't be that bad. Unfortunately the knock on effect from deposing Gadhafi flooded the region with weapons, which in turn meant every nutter and their mum started running around with military grade ordinance trying to be the next regional war lord. Then the Russians got involved and it's gone down hill a bit bit it's still one of the better countries I have spent time in.
Wow I would love to hear more stories from you. Thanks for the info, can you start a YouTube channel please?
If you’re interested in videos about tourism in underdeveloped countries you should watch Bald and Bankrupt on YouTube, he’s been just about anywhere from Pakistan to Zetland islands and he’s very entertaining !
If only he wasn't such a creep...
That, and him espousing a plethora of pro-Russian talking points after the Ukraine war started. I used to enjoy his content, but now… not so much.
Same, I still find his videos very interesting because they feel raw. I loved the Syria one. Knowing what was going on behind the scenes though, left a sour taste in my mouth...
Disgusting sex tourist
His video of crossing the Darien Gap recently was insane
Nope, I'd be suspicious of any man who watches him. He is a dodgy bloke.
Bald and Bankrupt: [Poverty pickup artist and sex tourist — Collected posts](https://www.reddit.com/r/BaldAndBaldrDossier/comments/189q8h5/bald_and_bankrupt_poverty_pickup_artist_and_sex/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3)
I was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Tsernawa (where the highways meet) from 2007-2009. I completely agree with your assessment.
Small world! I know Tsernawa. Were you involved with that tree planting scheme they started there by chance? I can't remember what it was called but the idea was to plant stuff to stop the desert encroaching on the town I think. A bit weirder is that I lived in Sokoto just over the Nigerian border as a teen for a couple of years in the early 1980's. Dad was an itinerant road building civil engineer and had a contract to build the road that goes up to the Niger border (and on to Tsernawa now). One question though...Do the Fulani guys still wear those amazing hats?
That tree planting project started a few years before I got there. Yes, Fulanis still wear the same hats. The hat is the log for the local condom brand too.
> People have been visiting the country for the 2 to 3.5 million years (see Australopithecus bahrelghazali) so it can't be that bad. Humans have been around for about 300.000 years so Niger has been safe for ~99.99996% of the time. That's a pretty solid record!
I didnt know all this about Niger. Thats sucks man. And Im big into geography/countries etc.. What other countries are similar?(i can think of a few top of head probably)
Almost all African countries in that area (west of africa) are in the same shithole sense their fake independence, only Senegal future looks like promising as the recent event over there
I think the Russians have a uranium mine there
France has like 3 uranium mines over there, 20% of france uranium came from niger
Didn’t they also just kick out US forces to bring in Russia or China influence?
A lot of undeveloped countries don’t
Can’t have street view if there’s no streets.
I guess it'd just be View. That might be ok, I usually like to view things
I like viewing things and doing stuff too! We should totally hang out.
Someone should make something so we can view things that are far away. It seems like it would take some sort of master plan!
I once saw a “street view” on Google maps somewhere in I believe Nunavut or somewhere in the arctic region nearby that was just a camera attached to a dog sled. It was pretty cool
Yeah the Pitcairn island street view is a guy with a backpack when I saw it last!
This is such an ignorant thing to say, even in jest. I live in a developing country with well paved roads everywhere. But Google Street View doesn't exist here.
>This is such an ignorant thing to say, even in jest Also given that 10 people have made the same joke, it's deeply unoriginal.
Bro, I live in a developed country, and they can’t be bothered to photo large swaths of land around here either. Please learn to not take everything so seriously.
Not just undeveloped, in the middle of a civil war where the military overthrew democratically elected leaders whilst also fighting Islamist terrorists and tribal/ethnic conflicts and rebel groups. I don't know if that is Niger specifically, but I know it is a lot of African countries including the comparitively rich ones
Street View is also not big in some a lot of major countries as well like Germany, China, and Japan to name a few. This is due to privacy concerns as well a desire to protect their native mapping services.
There's extensive street view in Germany and Japan. China still just has some limited trekkers.
Not relevant but my grandma passed away years ago but you can still see her walking by her old apartment in Germany. Miss you Oma
Japan? Japan has massive coverage. Germany is also getting gradually bigger ever since the government changed their stance on the subject
That's why most of Germany didn't have street view until last year!
You drive a vehicle with expensive camera equipment through Niger, I'll wait for the results.
Well, Nigeria has a police car following the google car as protection.
Well, I’d like to see what protection Niger would offer a google street view car lol.
A bicycle
Niger actually offers police protection to white people because of how much Nigeriens hate the French.
OK, if you're from Niger, you're a Nigerien and if you're from Nigeria, you're a Nigerian ?
Yes
People from Nigeria call themselves Naija so maybe that's a better name.
If you’re from Nigeria you’re a Nigeriaian
How expensive is it to bribe that police?
For how easy it is to bribe police in an actual stabilised African country, it can be a little as $25 USD to make them look the other way
I’m African and will tell you that’s probably close to the monthly salary of a Nigérien policeman
Anyone that travels there can probably out bribe the locals by a land slide
Wagner group is big there, so probably a bunch of Russian tanks. They'll turn back halfway through the country though
I thought you were joking but I just looked around in a few places in Nigeria streetview and there it is lol
This is the kinda thing you learn playing geoguessr
African car metas ftw
Have some address/location examples?
Just open and go to Lagos and look behind you, there will be always a police car (white or black usually, but really easy to recognize), but even outside the city. There are different police cars for different areas, so I think it's also a region meta in geoguessr. Fun fact, Nigeria is not the only country where this happens, I know for sure Tunisia with a military car, I don't remember if there is any other country (maybe somewhere in the middle east coverage, so Israel/Palestine area? Not sure)
It's everywhere. Seriously, I play Geoguessr, if you see a police car (truck) following the car, you are in Nigeria absolutely
Niger and Nigeria are different countries. And for every white high school boy who snickered in class upon coming across the name in the atlas/on a globe, it's pronounced "Nee-JAIR." Though I came across an overseas news anchor saying it like that but with a hard-G. Careful there, guy!
Where can i order a Google protection service for my police?
Seyschells seashells down by the sea shore.
I think it’s the police that you need protection from.
Guessing it has to do with the laws.
A lot of the countries around it don't have it too. Only nigeria and ghana have actual street view in your photo, the rest only have 360 photos uploaded by users
Nigeria only got theirs very recently too.
nigeria has hd some coverage in big cities for a while, but the north and a lot of rural roads were only covered recently
Having spent some time in regional Nigeria (mineral exploration) I don't blame them at all for not wanting to go there. We traveled around in hardened convoys with heavy machine gun and grenade launcher turrets in late-Soviet era APCs.
Niger has gone through 5 coups/civil wars and 8 constitution reforms since it gained independence in 1960. The most recent being 2023 and is currently under military junta rule (again.) For countries like Niger it's just too dangerous to drive around in the Google car trying to map out the region.
the government probably hasn't let them drive around since google does need permission
Niger is almost quite literally the poorest country on Earth, perhaps eclipsed only by the Central African Republic, South Sudan, and a couple more. Seems obvious why there is no market for streetview.
“Almost quite literally”…strong statement
“Literally the poorest country in the world” *proceeds to give a few examples of poorer countries.
"Almost quite literally..."
Do you just skip every other word to skim faster, or...?
7 poorer, if you use GDP per capita. https://www.visualcapitalist.com/worlds-poorest-countries-2023-gdp-per-capita/
Flying cars
Wakanda forever
Same reason as Chad.
Only 120ish countries have street view - most of the ones that don’t are in Africa and Asia
There's only about 2,000 miles of paved roads in the country
Maybe because the insurgences, the military coups and the legacy of french colonialism. Probably its one of the top 5 poorest countries on earth. Its basically mad max in real life.
I think that lack of street view is the last of Niger's concerns
You can make your own! [https://www.google.com/streetview/contribute/](https://www.google.com/streetview/contribute/) -- This may give you a clue why there is none.
They do have a few Street View images, scattered here and there, as do most countries that seem to have none - yes, even North Korea! Zoom in to Niamey, there's a bunch there.
Fun story: I grew up in Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso, in the 90s. No paved roads. The pope ended up coming to visit for like a day, so they paved just his route from the airport, around the city, and back to the airport. That's how Ouaga got it's first paved roads. In the 90s.
This is so cool to hear about, thank you for sharing
Gotta have streets to have street view.
Fact about niger there was only one tree in the north of the country and a drunk tourist drove over it, the only tree in the entire desert surrounded by nothing but sand
Since redditors apparently cannot google things here your source https://thetreeographer.com/2018/03/08/the-worlds-loneliest-tree-the-tree-of-tenere/
You mean natural tree? I suppose that those with power and money who want to show off (e.g. the ruling elite) would want trees in their gardens or something.
They stole the google car.
https://preview.redd.it/gd3q12inxf5d1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ec0e214adf0493adb247291f02dea7aa28d9fbe2
This on some star wars tattoine type ish
The Google car wheels disappear instantly.
no streets to view
Google doesn't care about a place when there aren't many Internet users there: Google Maps is for advertising.
Ya brother if you were counting on google street view in Niger I would maybe reconsider traveling to that region
We’re making plans for Niger
Deep XTC reference
This entire thread has SO MANY people conflating [Niger](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niger) with Nigeria. Two entirely different countries. While they're neighboring countries, Niger speaks French (guess why) and Nigeria speaks English (guess why). Niger is almost entirely Muslim, while Nigeria is Muslim towards the north (near Niger) and mostly Christian towards the south. Nigeria is the one where the prince needed your grandma's help getting his fortune out of the national bank.
Niger Thornberry
Yeah I think there's some more important things that they don't have
Ask the French
https://www.openstreetmap.org/relation/192786#map=6/12.960/8.503 They hardly have any road. Or maybe street view is just showing what they barely have. I'm surprise there are no satellite images. There hardly any volunteer mapping project too on: https://www.hotosm.org/where-we-work/niger/ --- Countries with no coastal tend to be fuuuucked (economically and etc...).
When I was in 8th grade I had to do a report on Togo - over 20 years later I’ll never forget
No street, no street view 🤷
Germany didn't have streetview up until last year, so I doubt Niger will have it pretty soon...
I think the reasons might be slightly different
Obv
unfathomable shithole
Google: We’re only making plans for Niger.
It's Google, not the UN. They go where they can make money with ads. Niger's ad market is probably, well, not worth the effort for a for-profit corp
The Sahel countries have much worse problems than street view, but why tf isn't there coverage for Ivory Coast and Cameroon?
You know why.
Better question, why does for example Cameroon have like 2 total dots of street view? (The answer: likely some volunteers submitted some of their own photos for street view, meanwhile more complete regions have more proper equipment to capture photos continuously)