September 25, 2020

Andrew Campbell 

Google removed its virtually presentation for visitors to walk to the summit of Uluru, which is a sacred aboriginal site in Australia , the company said on September 25.. This action means that visitors are no longer able to see the virtual route to lead them to Uluru.

Uluru was closed for October last year based on the request of the Anangu people. This sacred site is now no longer physically presenting to the public. Parks Australia, the official main management of Uluru, stated that this was the Anangu people’s wish to remove the image from the Google Map. Uluru is the spiritual and cultural symbolization for indigenous Australians. They have very unique connection to this sacred place and this special connection can be traced back to tens of thousands of years ago. 

The Anangu people is the owner of World Heritage Site. They have been urged to close the climb since 1985 when this giant red rock was placed in the national park. The route of the climb is the spiritual symbol for them because it’s the path for their ancestors. 

The spokesman of Google stated that they understood this site was the spiritual location for the Anangu people and since Parks Australia mentioned about this concern, the image was removed . Currently, photos show on the Google maps was taken before October 2019. 

Photo:Webshot.