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Cartographic curiosities
Carpatho-Ukraine must have been the shortest-lived state in history. It existed for a mere 24 hours, declaring its independence from Czechoslovakia on March 15, 1939 and was formally annexed by Hungary one day later. Predominantly inhabited by Ruthenians (Ukrainians), Subcarpathian Ruthenia (or ...
The Vinland Map was discovered in 1957, bound up with a manuscript of undisputed antiquity, the Historia Tartorum. The map supposedly is a 15th century copy of a 13th century world map, showing the known parts of Europe, Asia and Africa, as well as an unknown land across the Atlantic Ocean labelled ...
Most people know that Batman lives in Gotham City, and that this fictional place is a barely disguised version of New York City – so much so that in real life, NYC is sometimes nicknamed Gotham. Here’s a few lesser known facts about Batman’s home town: The place-name ‘Gotham’ has an ...
Published in 1912, Tarzan of the Apes was the first of 24 adventure books written by Edgar Rice Burroughs featuring the son of a British lord and lady raised by Great Apes in Africa. The protagonist’s English name is John Clayton, his title Lord Greystoke – but he’s better known by is ape-name ...
The painter Gilbert Stuart was inspired by the awkward shape of an electoral district on a map he saw in a newpaper editor’s office. He decorated the snake-shaped district with a head, a set of wings and claws, making it out to be some kind of antediluvian monster. “That will do for a salamander ...
One of the unlikeliest complexes of enclaves and exclaves in the world is to be found on the Belgian-Dutch border, and is centred on Baarle. This town, while surrounded entirely by Dutch territory, consists of two separate administrative units, one of which is the Dutch commune of Baarle-Nassau ...
“A map of the world that does not include Utopia is not worth even glancing at”, said Oscar Wilde (in his 1891 essay ‘The Soul of Man Under Socialism’), so I suppose this blog can’t do without one either. ‘Utopia’ is a Greek neologism invented by the author of the eponymous satire, Thomas More ...
I’m on a bit of a roll here, as far as strange World War II maps are concerned. Here’s another one, again from the German side, found at this page of the website of Calvin College in Grand Rapids, MI. This map is entitled “Deutschland muss sterben” (‘Germany Must Die’), in lettering reminiscent of ...
Another propaganda map dating from just before World War II, but this time from the Nazi-German side. One of the first victims of fascist agression was Czechoslovakia, dismembered at the Munich Conference in 1938 (when Sudetenland was ceded to Germany) and shortly thereafter occupied anyway ...
A British map, I presume, made between 1937 and 1940, showing the German plans for the conquest of Europe “revealed by Secret Nazi Map” – I don’t know if that isn’t a bit of British propaganda, or if there actually was such a map. In fact, this map, whether or not derivative of that supposed ...
A Pacific counterpart to Atlantis, Mu is supposed to have been a large continent in the middle of the ocean and the home of an advanced civilisation, having sunk beneath the waves many thousands of years ago. The civilisation of Mu is said to have influenced both the Chinese and the native American ...
Although you probably instantly recognise its shape on a map, you may be forgiven for never having heard of Jutland. This northern European peninsula is not an independent entitiy: it’s divided between Denmark, which occupies the northern two thirds of what Danes call Jylland, and Germany in the ...
Tatooine is a (fictional) desert planet in the Star Wars saga, circling two suns and circled by three moons and home to the Skywalker family. The planet is one of the most iconic of the saga, mentioned in all six movies so far. Tatooine harbors about 200.000 inhabitants, and was for a long time ...
Post #38 of this blog showed a spoof map of the world, supposedly according to Ronald Reagan – the avuncular 40th President of the US, an icon of conservatism to some, a prime example of cluelessness to others (including those who made the map). I’m old enough to remember that map when it was ...
In 1849, the Mormons who had recently settled the Wild West near the Great Salt Lake, ‘proposed’ the state of Deseret. It’s not clear to me whether this ‘proposal’ equalled a ‘proclamation’ in their minds. It is clear however that the United States never recognised the State of Deseret during the 2 ...