Why do we see the great wall of china from space and nothing else on earth?

That is a myth...there are many man made objects that can be seen from space.

Shuttle astronauts can see highways, airports, dams and even large vehicles from an Earth orbit that is about 135 miles (217 kilometers) high. Cities are clearly distinct from surrounding countryside, and that's true even from the higher perch of the International Space Station, which circles the planet at about 250 miles (400 kilometers) up.

"You can see an awful lot from space," says astronaut Ed Lu, the science officer of Expedition Seven aboard the station. "You can see the pyramids from space, especially with a pair of binoculars. They are a little difficult to pick out with just your eyes."

"You can see the Great Wall," Lu says. But it's less visible than a lot of other objects. And you have to know where to look.

In fact stretches of the wall aren't even visible from China. They've been buried by sand for centuries. NASA has used space-based radar to map out hidden parts of the ancient structure. Lu is trying to get a picture of it, too, with a digital camera.

It's a myth. You would much easier see the Great Pyramid, as it is 270 metres wide.

The wall is long, but not wide enough to see beyond about 50 kms.

Just imagine a single long hair. It may be a metre long, but you would not see it from a 100 metres away. But you would see something the size of a softball from 100 metres, even though it is much less than a metre.

Same thing with the Great wall. It is too thin to see from space, and whoever put this myth forward is an idiot.

You are repeating a very common urban legend...and repeating it incorrectly, I might add.

As the legend goes...allegedly, the Great Wall was the only human structure visible from THE MOON!! As it is, it is not visible from the moon and would be extremely difficult to see even from low orbit. However, as folks have pointed out, MANY manmade things are visible from space...cities, dams, canals, etc. Not sure if anything is visible from the moon, perhaps city lights on the dark side of Earth are visible from the Moon. Certainly no actual strutures are visible from that distance (not with the naked eye).

They say the last MAN made object you can see when leaving the earth is the Great Wall of China. The last thing you can see made by a living being is the Great Barrier Reef.

From orbit you can see lots of things. I was once riding my motorcycle and saw the ISS go over, and I thought "what the hell", I flipped off the ISS. Next thing ya know I'm getting pulled over by a weird dark blue sedan with a NASA logo on the door, they guy gets out and askes me to step off my bike. BAM kicks me in the *** and says "That's from the crew of the ISS, jackass!" and drives off.

You can see other manmade objects from space - like the palm in Dubai. There is a myth that you can see the Great Wall of China from the moon but it isn't true.

I think the space you talk is from the moon.

That is the big dimension that human can see from that distance.

Google Earth can see anything from space because the camera from a is to close to the earth.

They can see and take photos of other features too.

This is the NASA Gateway to Astronaut Photography.

http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/sseop/clickmap/

And here is Earth from space (NASA) photos:

http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/sseop/EFS/

Here you can see a bridge in Biloxi, Mississippi

http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/sseop/EFS/photoinfo.pl?PHO...

It seems that those photos are taken with normal cameras, with no special augments, so we should assume that those features are seen also naked eye. As NASA says:

This database was compiled by our staff to illustrate some very interesting Earth features and processes, including cities as seen by our Astronauts from space.

Because you CAN'T see the great wall unless you're in low-earth orbit - and then you can see other things as well. It's an urban myth.

WE do, mountian ranges, rivers, oceans, continents. The great wall of China is THE LARGEST MAN MAD OBJECT on the planet and also has contrasting colors to the surrounding enviroment

That's a lie.

You can see plenty of other man-made structures from space.

That's a myth.

You probaby can't even see the great wall from space.