Eerie Photographs That Make Us Feel Uncomfortably Small

February 12, 1984, was a pretty spectacular day for Bruce McCandless: he went deeper into space, untethered, than any other person ever had before. With a jetpack on his back, the astronaut “free-flew” away from his ship, Space Shuttle Challenger, for 320 feet. With the entire planet behind him, he must have felt smaller than any human being has ever felt. Yet McCandless took the experience in his stride. Writing for British newspaper The Guardian in 2015, he reflected, “It was a wonderful feeling, a mix of personal elation and professional pride: it had taken many years to get to that point.”

The RMS Queen Mary was a marvel of its time. Constructed in Scotland, the gigantic vessel was intended to ferry passengers in style between England, France, and the United States. The liner’s maiden voyage began on May 27, 1936, but before long it had been co-opted for another purpose. As World War II raged, the Queen Mary was used to transport troops across the Atlantic. After the war was won, she again acted as a luxury liner for civilians. She continued to do so until 1967 when she was retired and sent to Long Beach in California. The vessel remains there to this day.

The Elizabeth Tower, more commonly called simply Big Ben, is a famous clock attached to the Houses of Parliament in London, England. When its construction was finished way back in 1859, it was the biggest — and, apparently, the “most accurate” — timepiece on Earth. The minute hands alone measure a little more than 14 feet in length, which should really give you a sense of the scale involved here. But if you do find it difficult to imagine how large Big Ben really is, just look at this picture of a fully grown man standing on the inside of one of the four clock faces. He’s dwarfed by it!

There’s something slightly disorientating about seeing a bunch of cars all stacked up inside a tall tower like this; it just makes us feel small, somehow. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that five fully-grown adults can typically fit inside a regular car. That fact makes the scale of this tower pretty mind-boggling. This photo was taken inside a car storage silo situated at the Volkswagen plant in the German city of Wolfsburg. There are two such silos here, with each one capable of holding 400 cars!

Unless you’ve actually paid a visit to Mount Rushmore, it can be difficult to fully appreciate its scale. Photos of the monument in which all four faces are in the frame are often taken from the ground, usually from a great distance. While such images might allow us to recognize the skill involved in carving out the mountain, its sheer size is obscured. But when we zoom in and see a person on one of the Presidents’ noses — in this case Lincoln’s — we actually get a proper sense of it: the sculptures are enormous.

If you have a fear of heights, this bridge would be a nightmare to cross. It’s passing over the Lower Huia Dam, which is found in West Auckland in New Zealand. This structure was completed in 1971; there’s also an older one called the Upper Huia. That dam opened in 1929. Let’s hope that person didn’t look down, over the edge of the bridge. It may be a trick of the eye, but that pit seems like it goes on forever and ever.

Here we can really appreciate the incredible scale of the giant sequoia tree. This guy literally needs a ladder to reach the top of the log! The photo was taken at a place called Generals Highway, which is in Tulare County, CA. It’s not clear when the image was snapped, but based on their clothes, we can presume it was quite a while ago. Giant sequoias are considered to be the most massive of all the trees on the planet, which is hardly a surprise when we see the size of this log. Sadly, they’re considered endangered today.

This machine snapped in 1967 is quite the contraption. We’re looking at what was, at the time, the biggest electric fan on Earth to be owned privately. Its blades look absurdly large in comparison to the two people standing in front of them. And that makes perfect sense, seeing as how they apparently measured 38 feet in length. When it was in operation, this fan was capable of producing some insanely powerful winds. We’re talking gusts of more than 200mph.

Linking Britain and France, the Channel Tunnel is a remarkable feat of construction. But even though it was completed towards the end of 1994 the idea for such a shaft beneath the English Channel had existed since Napoleon Bonaparte’s time. It just took a long time for the technology to catch up with the ambition of such a project. The scheme was a truly immense undertaking, as this photo illustrates. Almost 13,000 laborers were employed to help bore out 95 miles of tunnel at a depth of 150 feet beneath the seabed.

Imagine what it must feel like trying to walk from one end of this aircraft hangar to the other: it must be maddening! It’s just such an insanely big place that any progress you’d make across it by foot would be barely perceptible. You’d just feel like it went on forever and ever. This worker at the facility — which is close to the German capital of Berlin — has the right idea. Rather than walking across the space, they’ve opted to glide through it by scooter. Genius!

Following the deadly and widely publicized Hindenburg disaster of 1937 the popularity of airships flatlined. And while they’re still around today — and may potentially become more viable again down the line — it’s probably fair to say not many of us have ever been up close to one before. That makes it hard to appreciate just how big these flying machines really were. Well, to try and get it clear in your head, take a look at these images. See how teeny-tiny all those people are compared to this Graf Zeppelin airship?

Here we see a person resting on top of an enormous sand dune at Namib-Naukluft Park, which is located in the west of Namibia. This park actually constitutes a mere segment of the wider Namib Desert, which holds an interesting distinction. Basically, it’s considered to be the oldest desert on the planet. This individual has undoubtedly found themselves within one of the most remarkable landscapes on Earth. They’re just a tiny dot upon a massive natural formation.

Here’s a cool way of gaining a sense of scale to judge how big underwater shipwrecks can be. Just look at how tiny the scuba diver seems next to the huge shape emerging from the gloom. For those not familiar with what goes on underneath a ship, we're looking at a mighty propellor. It's easy to forget just how big ships really are, but the scale is clear in this enchanting underwater shot. Each individual blade looks bigger than the diver, never mind the whole thing! The picture was taken in the depths of the Red Sea, which has gained something of a reputation for the staggering number of wrecked vessels along its bed.

How’s this for an exhilarating job? This photo was snapped at the Delaware Mountain Wind Farm, which is in Culberson County, Texas. Finished in 1999 the wind farm generates electricity via the 38 turbines that are dotted around the area. As we can see from this image, they’re pretty tall contraptions. In addition to all the expertise his job surely requires, this guy must also have nerves of steel to work on top of that turbine. A lot of people would be far too scared!

Imagine taking a dive into the seas around Japan and China and encountering this monster! This is a Nomura jellyfish, which can reach a diameter of 6’6” and can weigh more than 440 pounds. To make things even scarier, their stings can be really bad. At best, they’ll be painful to experience, but at worst they’ll be fatal. Japanese authorities consider the Nomura jellyfish’s presence in their waters to be a big problem. There have even been attempts to promote them as an unusual delicacy, so as to encourage hunting.

The Irish wolfhound is an enormous beast, capable of striking fear into people. Standing on their four legs, they can reach a height of almost 3 feet at the shoulder, but you really get a sense of their size when they stand on their hind legs! Contrary to their potentially fearsome appearance, though, they actually have a remarkably calm and patient temperament. This fellow’s name is Rufus, and we can see how he stacks up to his owner Mary Jane Miller. The photo was snapped in California way back in 1975.

If ever you needed a reminder of humankind’s capacity for engineering brilliance, take a look at this picture. It’s a photo of the Stausee Mooserboden dam in Austria, which was built all the way back in the mid-’50s. The dam produces electricity from the water that melts off the nearby Grossglockner and other surrounding mountains. It’s possible to pay the dam a visit and to walk along the top, just as these people are doing. The sheer scale of the structure on which they’re standing means those two people look miniscule.

Here we see a horticulturalist named Alberto Trinco, gazing down at a pretty incredible leaf. This is a species of giant water lily, known as Victoria amazonica. This species, in fact, is the largest type of water lily on Earth. It has to be said, Trinco looks pretty tiny standing beside it. This photo was taken at Kew Gardens in London, which in 2021 obtained a new Guinness World Record for possessing the world’s largest living plant collection.

The Gordon River in Tasmania is spectacular. Its waters are pristine, and all around it live an incredible range of fascinating animals and plants. As a natural formation, it’s awe-inspiring. But humans have also left their mark in this area in the form of the immense Gordon Dam, the tallest of all Tasmania’s hydroelectric features. The Gordon Dam led to the creation of the Gordon Lake to the north, which is notable in its own right. It’s actually the biggest lake on the island.

The Brooklyn Bridge was a remarkable feat of engineering for its time. When works had concluded on the project in 1883 it was then the longest suspension bridge on the face of the planet. But it had by no means been easy to get to that point. Millions of dollars had been spent, 14 years had elapsed since the project got under way, and, worst of all, lives had been lost. Estimates put the number of deaths during the bridge’s construction at 27, which is a tragic, if unsurprising, figure. When we see these two people high up on the cables, the dangers are pretty apparent.

When the Moon is at its closest point to the Earth during its orbit, astronomers call that the perigee. And when there’s a full Moon during the perigee, we can observe a spectacular phenomenon by simply looking up at the night sky. There, we’ll see a Supermoon, which is when our natural satellite appears bigger and brighter than at any other time. The true scale of the Moon is a little more apparent during such events. Just look how big it seems in this photo, which was captured back in 2019. It was taken in Nuremberg, Germany.

St. Patrick’s day is a big deal in New York. The parade that takes place there each year is said to be the biggest in all of the U.S., with some 150,000 participants and almost 3 million spectators. These people line up across the 1.5-mile route along Fifth Avenue to take it all in. This window-washer probably had the best view of all in 1964 while he was just doing his everyday job. Beneath him, on the other side of the road, stands St. Patrick’s Cathedral.

Mount Emei in China is a remarkable place, especially for Buddhists. A range of temples in the area have led to it being considered one of the most sacred sites of all for the religion’s adherents. The most impressive structure there is surely the Leshan Giant Buddha, the biggest stone statue of Buddha on Earth. The statue reaches a height of 233 feet, but if you really want to appreciate its scale, check out the photo of a person on its toe. He’s dwarfed by the toenail!

The Wawona Tunnel Tree of Yosemite National Park was a remarkable thing, quite apart from the shaft cutting through it. The sequoia reached a height of 234 feet, with a diameter of 26 feet. Its age was mind-boggling, having been rooted in its spot for well over 2,000 years by the time it fell in 1969. The tunnel was carved out back in 1881 as a way to attract visitors into the area. And sure, the tunnel was a novel thing to behold, as we can see from the photo. But the tree itself was the true marvel.

Here’s another job that looks pretty terrifying. These workers are tinkering with electrical wires on a transmission tower along the edge of the Yangtze River in China’s Jiangsu Province — at a height of around 1,200 feet. This is the tallest transmission tower on Earth; working on it is not for the faint-hearted. But someone has to do it. This tower is vital to the region, as close to 8 million homes rely on it for their energy needs.

Here we see a Series 40 Douglas DC-9, which, at the time this photo was taken, was the longest commercial twin-jet aircraft in operation. The ship beneath it is the Queen Mary, which just looks so much bigger than the plane. The aircraft may be quicker, but in terms of carrying high numbers of people, you can’t beat the ship. When this 1967 photo was taken, the aircraft was reportedly carrying the vice mayor of Long Beach, Robert Crow.

Here we see the Space Shuttle Discovery, being hoisted up into the air inside an assembly facility at Cape Canaveral. The people in the photo look so tiny compared to the spacecraft! Discovery has a special place in the history of American space exploration, having embarked on so many missions across 27 years of activity. Discovery’s days of exploration are over now, but if you want to gain a sense of her scale, you can: the ship is displayed at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.

It’s always nice to stare out of a clean window, but that’s easier said than done when it comes to skyscrapers. You need specialist window cleaners with nerves of steel to get them sparkling. Not everyone is cut out for that job, but these two seem perfectly at ease and up to the task. This photo was snapped somewhere in Bangkok, which is home to many skyscrapers. If we define that as a building standing at 495 feet or taller, there are said to be 165-plus throughout the city.

About 43 miles off the coastline of Belize City, an atoll known as Lighthouse Reef can be found. This place is gorgeous in its own right, but it’s made even more spectacular because of one of its features in particular. We’re talking about the Great Blue Hole, a massive sinkhole in the sea. The Great Blue Hole is almost a perfect circle, measuring a little more than 1,000 feet across and sinking down to a depth of more than 400 feet. Just look at how it dwarfs that boat in the photo.

Sebastian Steudtner is a German surfer with nerves of steel: the proof is in this photo from October 2020. That gargantuan wave we see is about to smash into Praia do Norte, a beach situated in Nazaré, Portugal. And that tiny figure cutting across its center? That’s Steudtner making history. Steudtner broke the record for surfing on a bigger wave than any person ever had before: one was 86 feet high!

The blue whale is the largest animal to have ever inhabited our planet. They can grow to be around 100 feet in length — that’s around twice as long as a T-Rex! — and can weigh an incredible 200 tons. To give you a real sense of scale, just the tongue alone of a blue whale is roughly the same weight as an entire elephant. Plus, their hearts are large enough to pump over 5,000 liters of blood around the body. And ironically, the biggest animal on Earth survives by feeding on one of the tiniest: blue whales eat mainly krill, very small shrimp-like crustaceans. They can consume around 40 million of these a day!

Ocean sunfish are huge fish, sometimes reaching around 14 feet in height and 10 feet in width. These very strange-looking creatures are said to weigh more than any other bony fish, tipping the scales at around 5,000 pounds — heavier than a car! Other fish species, including certain sharks, can be heavier, but they are classified as cartilaginous fish, not bony fish. Plus, sunfish lay the most eggs of any other animal! They may lay up to 300 million eggs at a time, which is more than any other vertebrate. Wow.

The giant oceanic manta ray is the planet’s biggest species of "devil fish." It is very closely related to the reef manta ray, but it ultimately grows to be much larger. While the reef manta ray tends to have a wingspan that stretches to roughly 11 feet, the giant oceanic manta has a span of almost 30 feet. This extraordinary photograph shows Captain A.L. Kahn and other fishermen having caught a giant manta ray in 1933 of Deal Beach in New Jersey. The catch came in at over 5,000 pounds, was more than 20 feet wide and was thought to be the largest fish on record at that time.