Maps

Forget the Fastest Route. Why Not Use Digital Maps to Plan the Most Beautiful Instead?

Yahoo is developing an algorithm that will allow you to choose the scenic route

The Snowy, Barren Arctic Actually Contains a Sophisticated Network of Inuit Trails

Compiled from accounts over the past 200 years, a new atlas documents a network of trails stretching across the Arctic

In Wales, Traveling by Dragon Is Now an Option, According to Google Maps

You can also commute by carriage or Loch Ness monster, depending on your location in the U.K.

A Swiss map at the printing office of the Federal Office of Topography in Wabern, Canton of Bern, Switzerland.

The Unlikely History of the Origins of Modern Maps

GIS technology has opened up new channels of understanding how the world works. But where did it begin?

Eliot R. Brown's hand drawn map of Gotham.

The Cartographer Who Mapped Out Gotham City

Batman has been guarding Gotham for 75 years, but its city limits weren't defined until 1998

These Are All the Places in the United States Where Nobody Lives

There are still plenty of empty census blocks out West

Google's new tool allows users to explore different geographic points, like the Marina Sands hotel in Singapore, over time.

With Google Maps, It's Now Possible To Travel Through Time

We can all be Marty McFly thanks to a new tool in Google Street View that offers seven years of views from street corners around the globe

The Paris Metro map, edited.

This Architect Spends His Free Time Reinventing the World’s Subway Maps

The new system is meant to be easy to read and understand, no matter how foreign the place

Explore Every Tornado Across the United States Since 1980 Through This Interactive Map

See why they call it Tornado Alley, but don't be fooled into thinking a tornado can't happen in your own backyard

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Do You Live Within 50 Miles of a Nuclear Power Plant?

A new interactive map tells you exactly how far you live from a nuclear reactor

Rendering of map by artist John Swogger.

This Stone Age Mural Might Be the Oldest Map Ever

But before it can be crowned oldest map, archaeologists have to figure out whether it is a map at all

Bodily maps of emotion developed by the researchers.

Different Emotional States Manifest in Different Spots in the Human Body

Humans are emotional creatures, but whether emotions produced the same physical responses in people across varying cultures remained unknown until now

The northern subtropical jet stream flows in Cameron Beccario's Earth.

Watch How the Wind Moves Around the Earth—It's Hypnotic

This mesmerizing tool helps visualize the winds all over the globe and is known simply as “Earth"

Photo courtesy of David Rumsey Map Collection. Interactive by Esri. Text by Natasha Geiling.

When the Lincoln Memorial Was Underwater

James Keily’s 1851 map of Washington shows a considerably smaller district, before the Potomac River was filled in to make way for monuments

Photo courtesy of the David Rumsey Map Collection; Interactive by Esri; Text by Natasha Geiling.

Before There Could Be a Los Angeles, There Had to be Water

California’s first state engineer, along with a team of surveyors, created this hand drawn map in 1880 to explore Los Angeles’ water resources

Photo courtesy of the David Rumsey Map Collection; Interactive by Esri; Text by Natasha Geiling.

What Did San Francisco Look Like in the Mid-1800s?

A look at a sailing chart of San Francisco and its bay, made in 1859 by the fledgling US Coast Survey

Interactive map courtesy of Esri. Text by Natasha Geiling.

What Did Chicago Look Like Before the Great Fire?

This 1868 pocket map of Chicago shows the city in full-blown expansion, a mere 3 years before the infamous blaze

The 13th century Tripitaka Koreana features 81,258 wooden blocks thought to be the world's most complete collection of Buddhist texts.

Preserving the World’s Most Important Artifacts

The Memory of World Register lists over 800 historic manuscripts, maps, films and more to help raise funds for preservation

"Getting to the Pacific by ship, without having to go over land, was the biggest challenge of that period," says Helen Nadar. "[Magellan's] the one that solved it" (above, a color engraving).

The Man Who Sailed the World

Ferdinand Magellan's global journey gave him fame, but took his life

In Lisbon's Rossio Square, Pistolesi's computer-aided stitching together of 12 distinct images yields one, he says, that is "like a painting."

Circling Squares

A 360-degree perspective on some of Europe's most alluring public spaces

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