Solid Block of Ise

I found this photo a few days ago, and it’s really put some confusion in my head. I’ve been trying to figure out what the hell these two geezers are standing in front of. So far I’ve come up with bupkus, so I’m asking the internet.

What the heck kind of machine is it?

Don’t bother with the filename. It gives no clue to what the picture is portraying - providing the picture is a genuine one. The filename is simply the name of the site where I found the picture, and the site hosting the picture.

At first I thought it might have been the Landkreuzer P. 1000 Ratte, a gigantic tank designed by the nazis during WW2. It sure would fit the scale, the Ratte was a super-heavy tank weighing in at a thousand tons. Well, it would’ve been if it was every built. It never made the leap from idea to reality, and not a single one was ever built.

Then I figured that maybe it was the NASA Crawler-transporter. You know, that huge thing they use to move the space-shuttles from the assembly hangar to the launchad, the thing that burns 350 liter of diesel to move a kilometer, and does it at a pace that a garden snail would outrun. Nope, that wasn’t it either. Why? Because the Crawler isn’t big enough. Look at this photo for confirmation. The scale of the man next to the tracks is not the same as in the photo above.

The only possible candidate that I can think of would be the Bagger 288, one of the largest bucket-wheel excavators, and additionally one of the largest land-vehicles every constructed. However, I haven’t managed to confirm this just from observation.

So, does anyone have any idea?

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