360 Cities, a network of photographers around the world creating immersive panoramas of various interesting locations, boasts to have put together the largest image of this kind in the world, a stunning 18-Gigapixel 360 image of the Czech capital Prague. The previous record was a 13-Gigapixel image of Harlem, New York, shot in 2007. The image, or rather series of images, was shot from a TV tower in Prague and the online tool set up to explore it enables you to explore the city and zoom in to see the details.

“360Cities.net, home of the most extensive collection of interactive, spherical panoramic images on the web, announced today it has released the largest known spherical panoramic photograph in the world,” 360 Cities announced in a statement.

“The record-setting photograph was created from 600 individual exposures stitched together into a single image measuring 192,000 pixels in width by 96,000 pixels in height, or 18.4 billion pixels altogether. When printed, it will be sixteen meters (54 ft.) long at standard photographic quality. Not only is the subject matter of this new panorama arguably more picturesque than the previous record-holder, the road to its creation is one that has spanned continents.”

The finished product is more than impressive, but you have to see if for yourself, preferably in full screen, for the full effect. The level of detail is amazing and you can zoom in on buildings, cars, even people at an incredible distance from where the photos were taken. You can also switch between several views to provide a different perspective or just for fun of it. The site has also come up with a contest linked to the image, a treasure hunt of sorts which will yield its winner $1,000. The contest will start next week and people will have to find 30 objects in the picture based on clues from Twitter and Facebook