TASH-BASHAT, Kyrgyzstan The forest stands overhead in the dusty mountain air, a dense composition of fir trees on a slope, planted by labor gangs decades ago. Its right angles are sharp and clear, forming a square cross with an upraised arm on one side and a turned-down arm on the other. Viewed from this remote village, the effect strongly suggests a living swastika, a huge and chilling symbol, out of place and time. This is the so-called Eki Naryn swastika, a man-made arrangement of trees near the edge of the Himalayas. It is at least 60 years old, according to the region's forestry service, and roughly 600 feet across. Legend has it that German prisoners of war, pressed into forestry duty after World War II, duped their Soviet guards and planted rows of seedlings in the shape of the emblem Hitler had chosen as his own. More than 20 years later, the trees rose tall enough to be visible from the village beneath. Only then did the swastika appear, a time-delayed act of defiance by vanquished soldiers marooned in a corner of Stalin's Soviet Union. See more reasons for the shape the planted trees make.... http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/09/16/asia/web.0916swat.php
There must have been quite a trend for Arborialistic Nazis, remember the Tree-swastika in Zernikow that was in the news a while back: http://archives.cnn.com/2000/WORLD/europe/12/04/germany.swastika.reut/ Trying unsuccesfully to find a decent image of the Kyrgyzstan one... I see there is some controversy about it's origins, or even if it has Nazi connections at all. Cheers, Adam
Nothing by those names in Google Earth. A search by "Swastika" showed a few in US and Canada, including a Swastika Haircare (in Swastika, Ontario!), but nothing in Kyrgyzstan Kyrgyztan is a damned big country, why didn't they do it in Andorra or Lichtenstein?
google earth 41°26'50.63"N 76°23'26.67"E http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/16/world/asia/16swastika.html?pagewanted=1