nn n It seems impossible to find an online map showing all of the European Union’s so-called Euroregions. Why doesn’t the EU showcase these transnational regions, conceived to promote economic […]
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Even one of the world’s most comically small countries can look back on centuries of territorial bigness.
“West Floriday, that lovely nation, Free from king and tyranny, Thru’ the world shall be respected, For her true love of Liberty!” So goes a marching song that never got […]
If the Earth is hollow, where does all that magma spewing out of all those volcanoes come from? Somebody must have a half-convincing answer to that question, presumably that handful […]
A beautiful map from the time when symbolic cartography was giving way to the Age of Discovery
The southern terminus of the Iron Curtain could have been the starting point of World War III
Castro gifted the island to East Germany. They never gave it back. So whose is it now?
n Another traffic map of sorts. If this world map vaguely looks like it’s highlighting a remnant of the British Empire, that’s no coincidence. This map shows which side of […]
n No cloud without a silver lining: the extensive bombing damage to London during the Second World War provided an opportunity to develop a drastic plan for a green, open-spaced […]
This map is from the Agile Rabbit Book of Historical and Curious Maps (Pepin Press, 2005). It’s a British map dating from 1897, explaining geographical terms by showing them in […]
Many New Yorkers feel their city is more than just the (self-proclaimed) capital of the world. They think it actually is most of the world, the rest of the planet […]
n Nowadays, the southern tip of Africa is dominated by a single state, the Republic of South Africa (punctuated by Lesotho, one of the world’s few enclave-states). But starting about […]
n The Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways (Eisenhower Interstate System for short) spans the entire USA, including Alaska and Hawaii. The EIS serves all major American cities and […]
“Who would not pity the poet who has to write and make his rhymes about some bold Sir Francis Drake’s brave journey round the tetrahedron?”
n Your typical American border is the straight line, as demonstrated by the US-Canadian border that follows the 49th parallel for approximately 1.245 miles (2.000 km), longer than any other […]
n The Pennsylvania-Delaware border is characterised by not one, but two cartographic anomalies. One is the Twelve Mile Circle (see previous post), the other one is the Delaware Wedge, an […]
n In November 1915, diplomats François Georges-Picot (for France) and Mark Sykes (for Britain) negotiated an ‘understanding’ about how to divide the Middle East into spheres of influence for their […]
In the Netherlands straight after World War II, there existed plans both official and unofficial to annex a large area of Germany as a way of obtaining war reparations (plans […]
In George Orwell’s dystopian novel ‘1984’, the world is ruled by three superstates. Unfortunately, there’s not much ‘super’ to these states except their size.
Is the Land of Oz located on a retrograde planet?
The Zeno Brothers invented a bunch of islands north of Scotland that turned out to have remarkable staying power on maps
Up to 8,000 people each year go hunting for a legendary gold mine, guided by cryptic maps like these.
The island inspired a Soviet SF novel and movie
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 […]
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 […]
Pigs (or hogs, or swine, or Sus – the Latin name for the species) are omnivorous mammals of Eurasian origin, closely related to hippopotami and generally more known for being tasty than clever […]
Is there a link between Andy Warhol’s fifteen minutes of fame and the tragicomic history of Carpatho-Ukraine?
Past Affection Farm, take a left at the River of Tears
Border weirdness on the Arabian peninsula