Arc

Is there a way I can view the globe in Google Earth and select two points and have it draw a line (i.e., the shortest distance)?  I tried  "loc1 to Loc2" but it could not figure it out.  It probably thought I actually wanted to drive or fly between them, but I just want to see the direction.  I put from where I live in the USA to a place in the  (Africa/Asia area).  In regular google maps you can do a measure distance but it just shows the Earth as flat.

I may be misunderstanding your question, bistritapcv, but I believe a great circle arc is all that you can draw with the Ruler tool. I used it to measure the distance between my present home and my previous one (see the attached screen shot). Notice that I activated View Grid, as if the NS/EW orientation of most of the streets in my old neighborhood were not sufficient evidence. At point 1, the azimuth was 50°, whereas the back azimuth from point 2 is 312°. To travel between the two points, as an airplane would, you would need to constantly change your heading, starting at 50° until you got to 137°. You can demonstrate this by measuring between two distant points, saving the ruler line as a path, and then navigating between the two points, keeping the path under the center of the compass tool.

If you mean the opposite, then I think the View Grid is your best option for finding all of the locations at the same latitude. If you want just to compare the latitude of two locations, create two placemarks and use right-click Properties to read the two latitudes.

Actually, they had an open mosque here (Chicago suburb) and explained how during the service they face Mecca.  They then asked people to point to Mecca and they pointed SE.  Then they said the actual shortest distance was NE.  I believe it and just wanted to see it on Google Earth.

How do I activate grid view or ruler?  Here is all I see:

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Click on View (upper right left, third item) to activate the pull down menu, and tick Grid. The closer you zoom in, the more detailed the Grid becomes.



I was asked the same question by a Muslim student maybe 20 years ago. I showed him with a string on a globe and a ruler on a flat world map, then we took his prayer rug out to the parking lot, and I showed him the two choices. I can't remember which direction he chose, but he had a hard time getting his head around the great circle distance, so I suspect he opted for the flat map direction.


Edit: Sorry about the goof.  I was a slow child, and I guess I'm still working on right and left.

Not sure why but I don't see the view menu.
Is there a site other than earth.google.com/web/@0,-26.08534448,0a,22251752.77375655d,35y,0h,0t,0r/data=KAE ?
I realize the last part is specific to what I was looking at.  Probably up to earth.google.com/web

third on the left for me is voyager.
These are my buttons:

Menu -- search, voyager, my places, map style, settings, feedback, help
Search
Voyager
I'm Feeling Lucky
My Places
Share

Ctrl + L should also toggle the Grid lines on and off.