Two aerial photos

[amberica]

Pretty sure I posted this before, but I wanted to post with some statistics.
Black Rock City, 2003

In the image, you can see that the semi-circular city is enclosed by a 7.5-mile pentagononal fence. Each side of that pentagon is 1.5 miles long, and the area inside the fence is about 4.5 square miles. At the very center of the area is where The Man will be. Further out, where the circle would complete itself, is the Temple site. If you follow a straight line from the Temple to the Man and then into that inner edge of the semi-circle, you will see a smaller, crowded circular area. That's Center Camp.

That picture was from 2003, several weeks before the week of Burning Man, so things are still being set up. When everyone arrives, it's super crowded. Here is a picture from last year: Clicky for aerial photo. Looks like it's VERY early in the week, because The Man isn't even up yet, and I remember it getting way more crowded. In 2004, there were 35,664 participants living in Black Rock City. It's kind of hard to capture the scope of the whole thing in just these aerial images, but I hope it gives some of you a better idea of what it looks like, as far as size and numbers.

It's really different... When you are in the streets, among the camps, it's crowded like any other city. But then you can go out into the open desert, and it's just barren, except every now and then you will notice some crazy sculpture or something out in the middle of nowhere. Really different. Last year, my first year, there didn't seem to be a lot of really GOOD art, and according to my friends who had gone in years past, this was true. I really hope that this year is better... it sounds like there are some amazing projects being prepared, but last year apparently a lot of the cool ones were cancelled for one reason or another. I wouldn't be surprised if the bad weather was a big part of it... those winds.... *shudder* ... ugh. Well, I guess we'll see!

Comments

[mouse-gerald.livejournal.com]

Thanks for posting this! I'd seen the first aerial shot, but without explanation, and I didn't even know there was a fence. It's good to see where "Center Camp" is, too, since I'm planning on doing a lot of drumming there.

Right now I'm sitting in a cubicle downtown, all corporate in my dress shoes & tie... just passing my time in this disguise until I can get to Burning Man & let my tribal self out for a whole week. Ahhh...

[amberica.livejournal.com]

hehe - yeah, the fence is kind of used as a point of reference sometimes, as in, "During that dust storm, we couldn't see The Man to find our way back home, so we walked in what we THOUGHT was the right direction. We just walked and walked until we hit the north garbage fence! Oooops! Fortunately, the Double-wide Living Room Lounge appeared, picked us up and gave us virgin margaritas, and took us back to center camp."

Center camp is hard NOT to find (unless you are lost out on the playa during a dust storm.) Once you're in the city and all set up, just move towards where 6:00 intersects with the Esplanade until you see LOTS and lots of people and a big giant circus-tent lookin' place. ^_~

Last year we lived just north of 6:00 and Saturn. There were Port-A-Potties across the street to the south, which was nice, but also noisy and smelly when the trucks came to clean them at 6 am. When we were getting set up on Day 1, one of our new neighbors hollered out to us, "Welcome to Pottyview Acres!" It was a nice neighborhood overall... and I think being close to the potties was actually not that bad. I'd recommend it... kind of. lol

Just another thing to think about!

[mouse-gerald.livejournal.com]

I think... in the desert... in the summer... I'd rather not camp close to the port-a-johns. But thanks for the tip!

[amberica.livejournal.com]

I hope you have seen THIS MAP too!

More city layout details HERE.

Also see The Burning Man Project> for general info (this is just general info for any of you who STILL haven't looked at it!

[mouse-gerald.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, I've seen those maps & of course been all over the website.

My goggles came in the mail today, and I already got my No-Rinse shampoo, conditioner, and body wash. :)

[amberica.livejournal.com]

Shampoo? CONDITIONER??? Oh man, just jump under the water truck, that's all I need!

(Of course, Jon is building a shower and nifty little evaporation pond this year, so I *might* try it out, but in general, I like being a dirty dusty girl all week.) :P

I may technically be a FORMER archaeologist by now, but I still "Dig" Dirt.

[mouse-gerald.livejournal.com]

Everybody loves a dirty girl. ;)

I'm big on camping & backpacking, and not all the places I go have potable water, hence the "no water needed" toiletries. Why, what would I do if I found myself in the Cambodian jungle with no usable conditioner? Perish the thought!

I saw the info on the evaporation ponds, those looked kind of fun, if you're into pains in the butt, hehe.

You're an archaeologist? My. I posed as one once, to get access to a dig in Guatemala. ;)

[amberica.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm trained and schooled as a shovelbum... but it doesn't pay much, and if you specialize in something like Upper Midwest Plains arch, you don't work much in the off-season (and I didn't have any interest in living out of a truck like many of my friends in the field who travel to different areas with seasons.)

I guess I just like job security too much... Being a field tech kind of sucks sometimes, in that you are basically a contractor constantly looking for your next job. Some people get off on that. Not me.

Then again, if I ever married a rich dude, I'd probably try to work on local projects just to get back out in the dirt and work those 12 hour days for 10 days straight... But only if I married a rich dude and could afford to do that.