Wikipedia:Picture of the day/On the main pages

This page shows the pictures of the day for yesterday, today, and tomorrow. If multiple pictures are featured as a random selection, all of the options are shown here. If the dates shown below are not current, please null edit the page.

Yesterday (2024-05-02)

 

A Plan of the Cities of London and Westminster, and Borough of Southwark is a 1746 map of the City of London and surrounding area, surveyed by John Rocque and engraved by John Pine. Rocque combined two surveying techniques: he made a ground-level survey with a compass and a physical metal chain – the unit of length also being the chain. Compass bearings were taken of the lines measured. He also created a triangulation network over the entire area to be covered by taking readings from church towers and similar high places using a theodolite made by Jonathan Sisson (inventor of the telescopic-sighted theodolite) to measure the observed angle between two other prominent locations. The process was repeated from point to point. This image depicts all 24 sheets of Rocque's map.

John Rocque and John Pine

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Today (2024-05-03)

 

The great blue turaco (Corythaeola cristata) is a bird species in the turaco family, Musophagidae, which is widespread throughout the African tropical rainforest. It has a typical length of around 75 cm (30 in) with a mass of around 1 kg (2 lb). The adult great blue turaco has predominantly gray-blue upperparts with an upright blue-black crest. Its bill is yellow and the two sexes have similar plumage. This great blue turaco was photographed in Kibale National Park, Uganda.

Photograph credit: Giles Laurent

Tomorrow (2024-05-04)

 

The Nazca lines are a group of geoglyphs made in the soil of the Nazca Desert in southern Peru. They were created in two major phases – the Paracas phase (from 400 BC to 200 BC) and the Nazca phase (from 200 BC to 500 AD). The combined length of all the lines is more than 1,300 km (800 mi), and the group covers an area of about 50 km2 (19 sq mi). Most lines run straight across the landscape, but there are also figurative designs of animals and plants. Scholars differ in interpreting the purpose of the designs, but in general, they ascribe religious significance to them. The lines were designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1994. This is an aerial view of the geoglyph known as the "monkey", one of the most well-known in the Nazca lines.

Photograph credit: Diego Delso