(MENAFN- The Peninsula) DOHA: You can now have a 360-degree view of Hamad International Airport (HIA) without going inside. The 600,000 square metre HIA has become the first airport in the Middle East and North Africa to be on Google Maps’ Street View. Be it looking the 23-foot Lamp Bear sculpture in the eye or peeping into upscale Duty Free outlets, Google Maps can almost chaperone you around the airport.
Street View is a feature of Google Maps that lets users explore places around the world like landmarks, natural wonders, as well as culturally and historically significant
sites.
HIA is the latest indoor Street View experience in the region and joins other structures such as Dubai’s Burj Khalifa and Abu Dhabi’s Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque. It is also the latest in a long list of the region’s landmarks available for the world to explore online, including Petra in Jordan, the Pyramids of Giza, and the Liwa Desert in Abu Dhabi.
Ulf Spitzer, Head of Street View, said: “The Google Street View team continues to go to amazing places around the world because we know that our users love to see them and experience these locations online. From Urs Fischer’s Lamp Bear sculpture to the international brands that line Hamad International Airport’s duty free, travellers around the world now have the airport’s boarding gates, lounges, and much more at their fingertips.”
The airport now joins other global landmarks on Street View such as London’s Big Ben and the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
The Peninsula