Everyone knows what a urban park looks like, right? It tends to be a parcel of green space in a sea of asphalt and concrete and glass. But, of course, there are innumerable variations on that principle. We thought it would be fun to take ten of the world’s largest, most famous, and most beautiful city parks–some combination of those virtues, anyway–and view them from above, all at the same scale, to get a sense of how they’re situated in the fabric of their respective cities and how they work as a whole. How do the world’s great parks compare? Employing the wonders of searchable satellite imagery, we’ve brought together this collection of bird’s eye views to give a sense of how individual and unique these parks are.

We should note that all the parks on our list are located in Europe and North America. That wasn’t by insensitive design–the ones we chose just seemed to us the best candidates. If we missed any giant, amazing, centrally-located city parks in Asia or South America or Africa or some little island somewhere, please feel free to give us a beatdown in the comments section. [SButtonZ button="digg"]

For a sense of scale: a mile is about two and a quarter inches — though there is some minor variation among the photo sets.

Central Park, New York City – 843 acres

Created: 1853; Located in uptown Manhattan, in the midst of some the island’s densest and wealthiest neighborhoods. Frederic Law Olmstead’s urban pastoral masterpiece contains several bodies of water, a zoo, playgrounds and fields, natural wooded areas, and so very much more. Sadly, if America ever become totally insolvent, the government will likely have to sell Central Park for trillions of dollars to the Chinese so our nation can keep buying cheap toasters.

Retiro Park, Madrid – 350 acres.

Founded: 1632. Originally a retreat for the Spanish royal family, the park is adjacent to both the the Prado Museum and Atocha train station (the rail yard is visible at the bottom of the photograph). The park’s gardens and artificial lake are both iconic in Spain. And there are chestnuts there — lots and lots of chestnuts.

Golden Gate Park, San Francisco – 1,017 acres

Created: 1870. Built in the wake of New York’s plan to create a “central park,” Golden Gate has a similar shape and abundance of attractions. The Summer of Love was launched there in 1967. Also, it’s very easy to buy drugs.

Tiergarten, Berlin – 630 Acres

Created: 1830s. If you’ve never been to Berlin, pretty much all the stuff that you’ve heard of in Berlin is located in or at the edges of this urban green space: The Reichstag, the Brandenberg Gate, Pottsdamer Platz… and also the Victory Column where Obama gave a speech and then the Europeans all decided he should become president.

Stanley Park, Vancouver – 1000 acres

Created: 1888. This enormous, forested peninsular park was created from a former military reserve. It boasts one of the world’s great urban beach promenades, and also is home to Vancouver’s world-class aquarium where the parts of cinema classic Good Luck Chuck were filmed.

Monsanto Forest Park, Lisbon – 2300 acres

Created: 1930s. This giant parcel of urban forest was created by replanting the formerly barren Monsanto Hills. It is a great place for hiking right in the city–but the fact that it’s also wrapped in highways lessens its appeal as a walking destination.

Balboa Park, San Diego – 1200 acres

Created: 1868. Balboa is directly adjacent to downtown San Diego. The park features gardens and open spaces interspersed with attractions like the El Prado promenade and city’s famous zoo. There is also one of those “18-hole” thingies where you can hit around little white balls.

Hyde Park, London – 625 acres (including Kensington Gardens)

Created as a public park: 1637. Divided by The Serpentine lake, Hyde Park and Kensington Garden are technically distinct entities but functionally one big green space. Both are part of the impressive “green lung” of parklands in central London.

Mont Royal Park, Montreal – 545 Acres

Created: 1879. This stunning park overlooks the city’s downtown and was laid out by Fredrick Law Olmstead, whose name you might know. Mount Royal Park offers a stunning array of activities from snowboarding to classical music concerts. Sadly it was almost denuded in the 50s by a zealous mayor who determined that there be no fornication in the park bushes. Happily, the vegetation–and local fornication habits–have fully recovered in the meantime.

Luxembourg Gardens, Paris – 60 acres

Created:  1625 . While diminutive compared with the other parks on this list, this public park–which constitutes the grounds of Luxembourg Palace–sets a standard as one of the most beautiful and hospitable urban spaces in the world. But it also offers some scale for all these other parks…

Tags: COMPARISONS