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The newest essays, interviews, and features from Big Think.
111 years ago, San Francisco was almost wiped off the map
A curious map from Alfred Russel Wallace, the father of biogeography
What could be more rational - or more revolutionary - than to impose a rectangular grid on France's age-old divisions?
Intangible and invisible, but omnipresent: that combination of qualities used to describe only God (or the sense of dread left by His absence). Now it also applies to cyberspace. Any […]
n This is to my knowledge the only indisputable evidence of a nimbo-cartographic simulacrum, ever! You’ll find it on the website of the Fortean Times, a monthly magazine dedicated to […]
n This remarkable painting was made by the Norwegian artist Rolf Groven as a poster proposal for Norway’s pavilion at the World Exhibition in Seville (Spain) in 1992. The title […]
n The Turks have Piri Reis, whose 1513 map shows parts of America and Antarctica with astonishing and, in the case of Antarctica, frankly inexplicable accuracy. The Chinese have this […]
There´s a certain type of children´s literature that just positively requires a map at the end paper of the book. The map is there either to show an itinerary that […]
If you want to witness a total solar eclipse and you live in Europe, you’re out of luck until at least 2026. Unless you live in one of a few […]
Stuck in Despair Marsh, or marching up the Determination Hills?
As we’ve all learned in school, 70% of the Earth’s surface is covered by water, only 30% is solid ground. What if everything was reversed? What if every land mass […]
In a place far from the geographic heart of German culture, on the lower reaches of the Volga River in the southern part of European Russia, there once existed a […]
n Steinstücken is the southernmost part of the Berlin Ortsteil (borough) of Wannsee, almost adjacent to the UFA film studios. From east to west, it’s no more than 500 metres wide, […]
Nobody knows why a map of Pinsonia was included in an otherwise accurate atlas
The Kingdom of Redonda, as presented by King Leo I of Redonda The Kingdom of Redonda, as presented by King Robert I the Bald of Redonda On his second transatlantic […]
The motto of the United States is E Pluribus Unum, Latin for ‘Out of Many, One’. Matt Kirkland, who provided me this map, thinks the US has become too unwieldy, […]
n This map out of the National Geographic magazine was sent to me by Xyzzy, a name that gives nothing away as to gender affiliation or relationship status. If Xyzzy […]
On June 3, almost 9 months after the first post on September 10 last year, the hit counter on strangemaps went up to 1 million. Today, a bit over a […]
n The cyclist pauses amid fields of produce that stretch toward the horizon, punctuated only by farms and roads. He stares in bafflement at a road map far too elaborate […]