Today’s topic may be a sensitive one, so I will use this introduction to lay some groundwork that will help contextualise what follows.

Schools and educational models are what enable us to regulate the knowledge that every citizen needs to coexist and successfully serve the society of which they are a part. At its most fundamental level, this is how children learn to read, write and grasp basic mathematical concepts. All systems include various subjects that present pupils with knowledge in other fields such as biology, physics, chemistry or foreign languages. Beyond that, there are also subjects that help them understand cultural traditions, history or the administrative and political foundations of the state of which they are a part of. It is important that all this is taught from a young age, as the great plasticity of young people allows these foundations to become firmly rooted in the individual. And it is precisely this last point that makes education such a magnet for propaganda.

This leads us to a major debate. Where does education end and propaganda begin? Of everything taught to a child, what is acceptable to society and what is not? The debate over the distinction between education and propaganda is one that has been going on for over a century in academic circles, and perhaps many centuries longer in conversations among citizens. People are uncomfortable with the possibility that schools might be indoctrinating their children with ideas or values that do not align with their own. In fact, it is a recurring topic of conversation whenever there is an educational reform, as there is always a fear that schools might be used as a platform for indoctrination, whether by teachers with a personal agenda or out of self-interest and under the direction of those in government.

The question has no answer, or at least no obvious, consensus-based answer1. It is easy to fall into simplistic arguments, such as the notion that education focuses on what is true, whilst propaganda seeks to distort that truth. If this were the case, who would determine what is true and what is false? It may be easy to reach agreement in mathematics and even in some sciences, but it would prove far more complicated when we delve into history or the values of society.

With that dilemma, I will now turn to today’s topic: educational propaganda in Imperial Japan.

The Meiji Restoration and Gakusei

The history of Japan is the history of an isolationist nation, at least before the first arrival of the West. From that point on, it did not take long for a series of restrictions on international relations to be established, which were enshrined in the sakoku policy. This completely prohibited anyone from entering or leaving the country, with contact limited to Korea, China, and the Netherlands, its sole trading partner in the West. Following a civil war, the Meiji Restoration arrived in 1868 and, with it, the transition to modernity.

The Meiji Restoration can be understood as a set of changes that transformed Japan from a medieval society into a modern state, like the many that emerged across the world between the 18th and 19th centuries. Among the many reforms, society was restructured, eradicating the complex class system to simplify it into just two classes: one comprising the privileged groups, such as aristocrats and samurai, and another for the rest of the population, including farmers, artisans, and merchants. More significant was the economic reform, which centred on the industrialisation of the country; to achieve this, it was necessary to open the borders and begin exchanging knowledge with foreign powers.

On 3 August 1872, just four years after Emperor Meiji came to power, the first national education plan, known as Gakusei, was announced. For all the reforms being implemented to have a lasting impact, education had to reach all sectors of society, as until then, it had been limited to the samurai, focusing exclusively on calligraphy, the use of the abacus and the study of Confucian classics. Heavily influenced by Western education systems, Gakusei brought primary education to all the country’s young people, expanding the subjects taught to include reading, writing, public speaking, history, geography, science, arithmetic, health, and ethics.

One of the main problems encountered by this reform was the lack of books and resources to cover the new curriculum. Initially, the decision was made to repurpose all existing material and import books from the West, which could be used to cover the new subjects. The lack of planning meant that the subjects and their content were not age-appropriate for the pupils, so the Ministry of Education soon had to change its strategy and begin creating its own materials. In geography, two of the earliest examples can be found in these two maps produced by the cartographer Shūichi Miyake in 1876 to depict Asia and Africa.

These two maps are particularly interesting, as they clearly illustrate Japan’s isolation up to that point. The maps show territories on each continent, but only consider part of the political reality of these regions. The fact is that this was not yet of interest to a country that was just beginning to open up; it was sufficient for school pupils to become familiar with the idea that the world was a place far beyond the archipelago, that these lands could be divided into a series of regions, and that within these there were some important states.

In the same lines, other more elaborate works soon appeared, which were necessary for studying specific subjects within the Japanese context. In 1885, Japan’s first thematic atlas, Agricultural Production of the Empire of Japan2, was published. Although its primary purpose was to provide data on Japan’s agricultural system, it offered a high level of detail on the country’s geography and geology. This atlas, like much of the material produced during this period, was written in both English and Japanese so that it could be used to exchange information and continue to receive material from other countries.

Propaganda for the new education system

In 1895, the Empire of Japan began its expansionist period, with the first wars in which it faced China and Russia. This new character gradually impacted the education system, which began to transmit a series of precepts designed to ensure that Japanese citizens shared the Emperor’s and the Japanese government’s worldview.

Within the subjects devoted primarily to ethics, public speaking and history, the Kokutai was promulgated, Japan’s particular way of understanding the national essence. Unlike many European states, such as France, in the Empire of Japan national identity does not emerge from the people, but flows from the divine status of the Emperor, as a direct descendant of Jinmu Tennō3. But what is perhaps most curious is that this Japanese nationalism with spiritual roots does not reinforce the importance of religion within the state or the society, but merely uses the leader’s divinity and spirituality to legitimise his position in power. Furthermore, all students were considered children of the Emperor, and they were expected to sacrifice themselves, if necessary, to serve the nation.

To reinforce the idea of superiority in the youngest children, the Ministry of Education also made use of other scientific subjects. The best example is the theory of evolution, which clashed head-on with Japan’s religious and cultural traditions, yet became part of the school curriculum. The reason was not a conviction that Darwin was correct, but rather that it was used as a necessary tool to explore the superiority of the Japanese people from a different perspective. Much like what occurred in Nazi Germany, the theory of evolution also came to be used to justify eugenics as a legitimate means of maintaining the power of the Empire of Japan4.

As part of the education system, the teachers, and lecturers delivering the lessons were also key figures. Government associations were established, in which all education professionals were obliged to participate. The aim was to ensure a constant level of peer pressure, making it easy to identify non-compliant individuals and ensuring that all were compelled to teach in accordance with the guidelines set by the State. These associations involved the Army, which had the authority to supervise lessons. Intervention was rarely necessary, as the mere threat proved sufficient to maintain consistency among the teaching staff.

Once the Second World War had broken out, the need for propaganda to secure the support of the younger generation increased. The Government was aware that it could not conceal its expansionist agenda, so all the work in schools was supplemented by a series of magazines that highlighted the Army’s sacrifices for the good of Japanese society. Throughout 1940, several issues of a magazine entitled Comrades and Students at the Front were published, recounting the exploits of the youngest members of the Army as proof that every member of society could make a difference. This magazine was also accompanied by numerous maps illustrating the advances of the Empire of Japan.

Through this magazine, the government ensured that students were aware of what was happening in the world, and it enabled teachers to adapt their teaching to include references to the new enemies and the reasons why the Japanese Empire’s actions in the Pacific and Asia were justified.

Education beyond schools

Unlike in other countries, like the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom or Germany, youth organisations were of little significance in Japan. The only example of this was the creation of the Greater Japan Youth Party in 1937, inspired by the Hitler Youth, but two years after its creation it had barely reached 2,000 members. Without organisations to occupy children’s spare time, how did the Japanese government ensure that the narrative would also prevail outside school hours? The answer lies in something as characteristic of Japan as manga.

Seeking a context detached from a purely educational nature, many publishers in Japan began to publish various magazines intended to occupy children’s spare time when they got home. One example is the children’s magazine Shonen Kurabu, which began publication in 1914, focusing on poetry and serialised novels with some illustrations. The content established a narrative dominated by positivism and the idea that every citizen must fulfil their duty of their own choosing, without waiting for orders from anyone. At the same time, it emphasised the need to pay attention at school and to be a dignified and strong person.

The real breakthrough for Shonen Kurabu came in 1931, when they began including Norakuro in the magazine, a manga series starring an anthropomorphic dog who served in the Fierce Dogs Regiment. Throughout the series, the main character, Norakuro, rises through the ranks of the dog army whilst fighting the pig army from the continent. The propaganda in this story seeks to influence readers in every possible way. Firstly, and structurally, the protagonist embodies the Japanese ideal: effort and dedication to serve the homeland and thus emerge as a war hero. The enemy army is situated on the Asian mainland, which allows for a quick association with the Chinese Army that Japan had been facing since the invasion of Manchuria in 1931. The characterisation of the enemies as pigs establishes a marked difference between the Japanese and the Chinese, which is nothing more than a representation for a young audience of the sense of cultural superiority that the Government had imposed in the Empire of Japan.

The manga’s success in Japan was accompanied by the success of its animated version, the anime. This format faced significant competition from animated films imported from the West in the 1920s and 1930s, which surpassed domestic productions in both quality and price. The only way anime could establish itself was by exploring themes closer to Japanese society. This was key to getting adults to identify with the content and choose to take their children to the cinema to watch these films, which leaned into cultural references and aimed, in one way or another, to preserve the values of the Japanese nation.

In 1939, with the ban on the screening of foreign films, Japanese anime experienced its first golden age. This was accompanied by educational shorts featuring the very same characters that dominated the cinemas, which helped children themselves ask their parents to take them to see the films, allowing the propaganda to take deeper root. The most iconic anime of this period was released in 1943: Momotarō no Umiwashi5. Momotarō, the protagonist of this children’s film, is a figure from Japanese folklore with whom parents and children were already very familiar.

The story tells how this character is joined by a group of animals on a mission to destroy Demon Island, whose inhabitants were portrayed as Americans and British. To make it more credible, the depiction of many of the island’s inhabitants followed the patterns of American animated characters with whom the audience was familiar thanks to years of watching such films. This is the case with the appearance of Brutus, Popeye’s antagonist, as an enemy soldier who abused alcohol and lacked any discipline. In itself, the entire film is a clear reference to Pearl Harbor and a justification of the Japanese Army’s actions aimed at the broader public.

This film had a sequel, Momotarō - Umi no Shinpei6, which was released in 1945, a few months before the end of the war. This work is the first feature-length anime and, alongside its predecessor, a masterpiece of Japanese propaganda from this period. On this occasion, the protagonist travels to the island of Celebes, which during the war went from being a Dutch colony to being occupied by the Empire of Japan. Momotarō, portrayed as a general in the Japanese Army, arrives on the island accompanied by his animal friends and encounters a population of animals living in extreme poverty. The narrative conveyed by the film portrays Japan as the Empire acting to liberate all of Asia and capable of bringing progress to the rest of the regions. Through all this, the anime reinforces the Pan-Asian ideal that Japan used to justify the invasion of numerous countries in continental Asia and the Pacific.

By popular demand, here’s a button for procrastinating, in case you have plenty of things to do, but you don’t feel like. Each time you click on it, it will take you to a different map from the more than 1,200 in the catalogue.

Give me another map

If you like what you read, don’t hesitate to subscribe to receive an email with each new article that is published.

Subscribe now

In February 2009, it had been barely five months since I’d left my first job1. I decided to pay a visit to some friends I’d left behind there, making the most of the fact that I had a day off, and they were all working. My new job had me travelling all day, so although we kept in touch by phone and email, there weren’t many opportunities for us to get together.

As always, we caught up. We talked about mundane things like work, but also about some life changes that some of them had in mind. That was when C. told us that his sister was getting married in August, and that he was keen to return to Lebanon to celebrate it. What’s more, the family also wanted us to accompany them to the wedding. C. and his family had arrived in Spain in early 2007, and from the first day they were extraordinarily hospitable people, eager to share and to learn. None of us were surprised by the invitation and, after giving it very little thought2, three of us accepted.

I’ve never been a particularly indecisive person, and there have been countless times when I’ve made decisions without studying everything in detail. This is especially common when it comes to travelling. That trip to Lebanon was yet another example. I remember we were exploring different options and combinations to make the trip even more interesting. One option was to take the opportunity to visit Syria, although we eventually opted for Jordan, mainly because Petra was very much on everyone’s mind. I must confess that I have often thought back on this decision, as there will be no other chance to visit the Syria I could have visited3.

After four or five days in Jordan, we arrived in Lebanon on 11 August, and I discovered a world for which I was absolutely unprepared.

A country that doesn’t fit on the map

Lebanon is a country of relatively small size. Covering some 10,000 square kilometres, it is smaller than Connecticut (United States) or Cyprus, yet it has a population of over five million. All of them crammed in, with the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Syria to the north and east, and Israel to the south. A territory that is also home to a rich history of the peoples who shaped it, such as the Phoenicians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Crusaders, Ottomans, and French4.

You might think that, with so many inhabitants and so little territory, the landscape would be relatively flat and fertile, but nothing could be further from the truth. The mountains of Lebanon reach an altitude of 3,000 metres, less than 30 kilometres from the coast, behind which lies the fertile Beqaa Valley, separated from Syria only by the Anti-Lebanon mountain range. This terrain creates a diversity of landscapes that includes Mediterranean coast, alpine ski resorts, semi-arid steppe, and fertile agricultural valleys, all within a two-hour drive of each other. And beneath those mountains lies one of the most coveted treasures in the entire Middle East: the region’s largest freshwater reserve.

This geography is merely the first level of complexity; the second is religious. Officially, Lebanon recognises eighteen different religious denominations, including Shia, Sunni, Druze, Alawite, Maronite, Greek Orthodox, Greek Catholic, Armenian and even a small Jewish community. It is known that all these denominations are active, but since the census carried out under French control in 1932, no further census has been conducted. The reason may seem surprising, but it is indicative of the country’s fragile political balance.

Following Lebanon’s independence in 1943, the country’s leaders established an unwritten agreement popularly known as the National Pact: the President of the Republic would always be a Maronite Christian, the Prime Minister a Sunni Muslim and the Speaker of Parliament a Shia Muslim. This arrangement ensured that none of the major religious groups would be excluded from power, but it also established a distinct religious identity. This pact survived the 15-year civil war, as the Taif Agreement, signed in 1989, consolidated this division of power with a slight adjustment to the respective powers, an agreement that remains in place to this day5 and which, were a new religious census to be carried out, could be overturned after more than 80 years of democracy and coexistence.

All of that is what is written on paper, but the reality on the streets is slightly different. I remember perfectly well walking through Beirut and seeing a woman in a low-cut top and another in a hijab chatting away, or a mosque just a few metres away from a church. It didn’t seem as though the existence of the other building mattered in the slightest to anyone. It didn’t feel as though coexistence was forced by the country’s constitution, but rather that it felt genuinely authentic. Of course, there were neighbourhoods and areas where certain faiths predominated over others, but that did not seem to exclude anyone. Lebanon’s conflicts throughout history have almost always derived from foreign interference or problems at the highest levels. Ordinary people coexist and are neighbours, in a sort of functional indifference6.

Lebanon’s aspirations are also important for a deeper understanding of the country. Between the 1950s and the 1970s, the inhabitants of Beirut liked to refer to their city as the Paris of the Middle East. They were not seeking easy tourism and money, but rather a project of identity. Beirut was the most cosmopolitan city in the entire Middle East, with prestigious universities, multinational companies operating there and a nightlife that attracted Arabs and Europeans alike. Beirut had what few other capitals in the region could offer: a free press, miniskirts, and minarets on the same avenue, Lebanese wine on the Mediterranean beach and mountain skiing less than an hour away. A country where things coexisted that were incompatible elsewhere in the Arab world.

And, well, it lasted as long as it did.

In 1975, a civil war broke out that lasted fifteen years. Then came an attempt at reconstruction, which, after another fifteen years, was cut short by the 2006 war with Israel. And with all that, in August 2009, I arrived with two friends at Beirut airport without knowing much about what to expect.

The Lebanon I experienced

My older sister had been insisting for weeks beforehand that I shouldn’t go, and, as I’ve done practically all my life, I didn’t pay her much heed. I adore my sister, but her perception of danger has always been exaggerated, though that doesn’t mean mine wasn’t slightly limited at the time. I don’t think I had a real sense of what I was getting myself into until we arrived at Amman airport to catch the flight to Beirut. There we had to go through multiple passport checks, as is the case at airports, though with the major difference that they checked every page of our passports up to three times. The last official also asked us directly what they were looking for: whether we had visited Israel recently. If the answer was yes, entry into Lebanon was strictly prohibited7.

C. picked us up at the airport, and we began the journey to his town, Zahlé, in the Beqaa Valley. It was during that journey that the reality really hit home. A journey that should have taken barely an hour stretched to almost two hours. It was mainly because we had to travel along a multitude of secondary roads, as many of the bridges of the main road had been destroyed three years ago, and they were not yet rebuilt8. Furthermore, I was also surprised by the number of army checkpoints along the road, although we quickly realised this was quite routine.

Finally, we arrived at our destination.

Zahlé is a perfect example of Lebanon’s diversity. It is home to Lebanon’s largest Catholic community, dominated by a 10-metre-tall bronze statue of the Virgin Mary, standing on a 54-metre-high concrete platform on one of the city’s hills. There I discovered that, unlike in Jordan, you could have a beer in any café without a problem, and that you could enjoy the region’s typical wine. C.’s family gave us a wonderful welcome and introduced us to the extended family, where I saw once again that human concerns easily transcend cultural boundaries.

And the wedding. What a wedding! I don’t know how many of you have had the chance to attend weddings in cultures different from your own, but it’s an experience you shouldn’t miss if you get the chance. It was three days of celebration and tradition completely unconnected to everything I knew and, perhaps for that very reason, fascinating. Although the wedding was Catholic, the tradition in Zahlé is nothing like what I learnt in my teenage years in Catholic Spain. It incorporated many elements of Orthodox traditions, such as the absence of statues in the churches, the use of crowns during the ceremony, or the bride and groom circling the altar three times whilst dancing9.

Then came the reception, which was more like a fancy party. There was live music, and even a sort of performance. Meanwhile, we were able to chat, to dance and, the most important of all, to eat. The food was absolutely marvellous. I’m sure many of you have tried Lebanese food in an international restaurant, but the culinary variety goes far beyond what a restaurant abroad can offer10.

Of course, the three of us, the Spanish visitors, were keen to do some sightseeing, as it was our first time in Lebanon. Everyone recommended we visit Baalbek, though they insisted we go with someone, so C. came along with us. In Baalbek, 40 kilometres north of Zahlé, lie some of the best-preserved Roman ruins in the whole of the Middle East. The area is rural and there were hardly any tourists, so we parked in front of the entrance and C. went to buy the tickets.

I remember perfectly a strange sight that caught the attention of the three of us as we waited. It was a civilian walking around the area, talking to various people and to all the police officers around the ruins. Somehow, we sensed that this civilian was controlling the situation, although at the time we couldn’t quite grasp exactly what was going on. C. returned with the tickets and explained that the man was a member of Hezbollah, the group controlling that region. But he also told us not to worry, as the areas controlled by Hezbollah were, by far, the safest11.

Over the following days, we also took the opportunity to visit the coast. I was fascinated by the Jeita Grotto, a vast cave system that allows you to see the mountains’ impressive freshwater reserves at first hand. From there we went to the Mediterranean beach which, despite being far away, still had something about it that made it feel familiar. I also enjoyed having a quiet dinner in the streets of Byblos, a city steeped in history that you can still feel in its walls. And Beirut, a unique city. It may never have quite become the Paris of the Middle East, but it certainly has a special and unique character. I spent one of the best nights out of my life there12.

The only regret I was left with was not being able to visit a cedar forest. My plan had been to spend a day walking through one of those cedar forests in the southern Beqaa Valley, but when we mentioned it to C.’s father, he put a stop to it straight away: not to even think about it, as it was far too dangerous. We didn’t press the matter.

The trip came to an end. C. took us to the airport, and we returned to Spain, the three of us intending to go back to Lebanon at some point.

What came next

Time passes and relationships cool off. It’s something I’ve come to understand over the years and have learnt to live with. It’s not that anything in particular happened, but lives drift in different directions, all the more so when we’re all constantly travelling for work and don’t even live in the same country at weekends. That idea of returning to Lebanon became increasingly distant, and the fact that there was a civil war on the Syrian border, with millions of refugees moving through the region, didn’t exactly encourage us either.

Then came August 2020. A massive explosion in the port of Beirut dominated the front pages of all the international newspapers. When I saw the news, I contacted C. to find out how he and his family were. C. had been living in the United States for years, but his sister had suffered the direct consequences of the explosion, as the windows of her house in Beirut, in another part of the city, had been completely shattered. Fortunately, no one in his family was among the hundreds of victims of the incident.

Then came October 2023. Israel entered Gaza, and Hezbollah decided to open a front in the north to support Hamas from southern Lebanon. Since then, things have only got worse. What began as limited exchanges of fire ended with a new Israeli invasion in the autumn of 2024. A ceasefire was eventually signed, but never true peace.

Last February, the US and Israeli attack on Iran reignited the conflict. Hezbollah responded once again, and Israel once more destroyed all the bridges that had taken so much effort to rebuild. More than a million people have had to flee their homes in the south of the country, whilst everyone awaits an Israeli ground invasion.

The idea of returning to Lebanon feels further away than ever. And coming from someone who has been putting off the trip for years, that’s saying a lot.

By popular demand, here’s a button for procrastinating, in case you have plenty of things to do, but you don’t feel like. Each time you click on it, it will take you to a different map from the more than 1,200 in the catalogue.

Give me another map

If you like what you read, don’t hesitate to subscribe to receive an email with each new article that is published.

Subscribe now

We are still in the middle of an extremely busy year. Although only a quarter of it has passed, you’d think we’ve been in the muddy waters of 2026 for decades. And it doesn’t look like things are going to slow down. The good news is that the maps various creators are publishing or rediscovering are also keeping up the pace. That means we can bring you the latest instalment of the maps of the month without too much trouble.

Here is a list of what you’ll find in this edition:

• The Strait of Hormuz

• Israel’s plans in Lebanon

• NATO map

• The Blackout maps

• Another way to represent election results

• Neverland

• Luxembourg is not a microstate

• Child Penalty Atlas

• The first flow map

• How much sugar is in Fanta?

• 38 million escaped, 10 million died (1943)

The Strait of Hormuz

The war against Iran launched by Israel and the United States just over a month ago is still ongoing. Sadly, we may be getting used to the news, but the reality is that the escalation of violence shows no clear end in sight1. In the past weeks, almost all media attention has shifted to the Strait of Hormuz. 20% of the world’s oil passes every day through this stretch of water, 167 kilometres long and 39 kilometres wide. At least it did until Iran decided to close it a few weeks ago, reducing the number of ships from around 130 a day to barely 5 or 6.

Al Jazeera published a remarkable visual guide this March on the Iranian coastline, its strategic islands and the Strait of Hormuz. That is where I got the map you can see above, but I recommend you have a look at their website for more in-depth understanding of why this part of the world is so strategically important for the world.

Israel’s plans in Lebanon

On 2 March, just two days after the war against Iran began, Khamenei’s death was confirmed. As a direct consequence, Hezbollah launched retaliatory strikes, turning southern Lebanon into a new front in the war. What began as an exchange of missiles has rapidly turned into a ground operation through which Israel seeks to occupy southern Lebanon, more specifically the entire territory south of the Litani River. Israel’s current objective is to shift the de facto border with Lebanon to the river.

The choice of the Litani as the border is no coincidence. UN Resolution 1701, adopted in 2006, already referred to this river, demanding that Hezbollah withdraw north of that borderline. Twenty years later, Israel wants to enforce compliance with that resolution and much more. It no longer seeks only for Hezbollah to disappear from southern Lebanon, but for hundreds of thousands of Lebanese to abandon their homes in the region so that it can be occupied by Israel.

All this is not mere speculation; Israel’s Finance Minister has already asserted that the country’s intention is to establish the new international border at the Litani River.

NATO map

NATO is the West’s major military alliance. It was established in 1949 with 12 members, and over the decades has expanded to its current 32 members. Recently, and more intensely in past weeks, Donald Trump has repeatedly questioned the value of this alliance, as he does not feel the United States is receiving the support it needs. In response, many world leaders and media outlets have insisted that NATO is a defensive alliance. They reference that Article 5 is only relevant when a member state has been attacked, which is not the case in the war with Iran, initiated by the United States and Israel.

But I would like to take this opportunity to speak briefly about the first two articles that appear in the treaty before the famous Article 5, as I think we are overlooking the most fundamental aspect of NATO2:

• Article 1: Members undertake to settle their disputes by peaceful means and not to threaten international peace.

• Article 2: Members shall strengthen their free institutions and promote economic cooperation amongst themselves.

That’s right, NATO explicitly calls for the use of peaceful means, for international peace not to be threatened, and for economic cooperation amongst members. Trump is threatening to leave NATO because he mistakenly believes that the other members should support the United States in its war with Iran. What I believe is that NATO will be irrelevant as long as its most powerful member has not the slightest intention of complying with the principles of peace and cooperation.

The Blackout Maps

Almost a year after The Blackout on the Iberian Peninsula, we now have a detailed report on what happened. On 20 March, ENTSO-E published a 472-page report on the events of 28 April 20253. I have taken the map above from the report. It shows the four major waves of disconnection that occurred during the 90 seconds leading up to the collapse of the electricity grid.

The second map, which you can see below, shows the events of the following hours and the process of restoring the supply. Power returned to the country via the eastern Pyrenees, the western Pyrenees and the south. Successively, several substations were brought back online, whilst some also attempted to restart unsuccessfully (all purple circles) or successfully (green and blue circles).

The report’s conclusion is more or less what many had been saying for some time. There was no sabotage, nor was there a single responsible. What there was, however, was a system designed for a different energy mix, which became destabilised until it reached the point of no return.

Another way of representing the election results

On 8 March, elections were held in the region of Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The map above shows the winners in each constituency, where we can see that the CDU won the majority of them, followed by the Greens with significantly fewer and Alternative for Germany with just one. But of course, this view is partially misleading, as the Greens secured the majority of the votes and the same number of seats as the CDU. Alternative for Germany, despite winning in only one constituency, also secured 35 seats, compared to the 56 held by the Greens and the CDU.

Election maps often have this problem: depending on how the information is displayed, it can lead to one set of conclusions or another. That’s why I really liked Benjamin Niedermann’s visualisation of these elections, which I discovered via the Nosolosig newsletter4. It is an interactive map that allows you to set a radius and visualise each party’s success in all the municipalities that fall within the circle. The experience is wonderful and helps you understand the distribution of votes much better than other classic electoral maps.

Neverland

This map was published by in her newsletter5 and, as usual, it is absolutely marvellous. It is an analysis of the cartography of Neverland, covering both the location of Peter Pan’s island and the features of its interior geography. The story traces how all this was built up step by step, adaptation after adaptation.

As Cristina rightly says, Neverland is not a place that can be mapped in a single common way, since it is different in the mind of every child who reads the book. Even so, the map you can see above, also created by Cristina, is really lovely.

Luxembourg is not a microstate

People often refer to Luxembourg as a microstate. And yes, it is one of the smallest states in Europe, but globally it ranks 26th on the list of the world’s smallest countries. And here’s the point: true microstates are much smaller.

This map compares the size of Luxembourg with that of seven countries that are commonly referred to as microstates6: Singapore, Andorra, Malta, Liechtenstein, San Marino, Monaco, and the Vatican. Yes, all of them would fit inside Luxembourg and would only occupy about two-thirds of its territory.

Child Penalty Atlas

Much has been said on this subject, but it is important to emphasise it because it is far from being resolved. This is an academic project that explores the career penalty women face for becoming mothers. In other words, it quantifies how much women’s employment and income fall after having children.

It is clear that, broadly speaking, almost all countries perform poorly in this regard. The impact is limited only in parts of Africa, parts of Asia and Scandinavia, with appalling figures across almost all of Latin America, much of Europe and the Muslim world, as well as Japan and South Korea.

On the Child Penalty Atlas website, you can explore the various indicators interactively.

The first flow map

Until a few weeks ago, if you had asked me which was the first flow map in history, I would have said without hesitation that it was Henry Drury Harness’s map. More specifically, the map he published in 1837 on the transport of passengers and commercial goods in Ireland.

This March, revealed to me that Harness was not the pioneer either, but that honour should go to Imre Milecz, the author of the map you can see above. In this article, you can explore this important piece of Hungarian cartography in detail; it goes far beyond being a map of the routes and volumes of the salt trade in the Kingdom of Hungary in 1773, and opens up an interesting debate about the first flow map.

How much sugar is in Fanta?

This March, I’ve also decided I need to eat a bit better7, so I’ve been reading quite a bit about nutrition and things I should avoid. One of the hardest things is figuring out which drinks are best to have when you go out at the weekend. I don’t mind drinking water and sparkling water, but it can get a bit repetitive. I want to avoid alcohol, but I can’t exactly consume all the sugar in the world either… and almost all drinks are packed with sugar. Have you ever noticed how much sugar there is in non-alcoholic beer?

In this context, a week ago, I came across the map you can see above, which shows the amount of sugar in a can of Fanta in different countries. I thought it was already excessive in Spain, but when compared with the rest of Europe (and the United States), it seems like nothing. Watch out for the United States, Italy or Belgium.

38 million escaped, 10 million died (1943)

To finish off, I’ve included a map that I uploaded to the catalogue last month and which I consider a true masterpiece. It is a propaganda map simulating the impact that Operation Barbarossa would have had on the United States. The Soviet territory occupied by Nazi Germany in early 1943 is shown in brown, and various American cities are matched with their Soviet counterparts.

The aim was to generate empathy with the cause to secure support in the United States for participation on the European front of the Second World War. An empathy that, little by little, eventually worked.

By popular demand, here’s a button for procrastinating, in case you have plenty of things to do, but you don’t feel like. Each time you click on it, it will take you to a different map from the more than 1,200 in the catalogue.

Give me another map

If you like what you read, don’t hesitate to subscribe to receive an email with each new article that is published.

Subscribe now

Two and a half years ago, several videos of couples talking about the Roman Empire went viral on the internet. More specifically, women asking their boyfriends and husbands how often they thought about the Roman Empire, and many of them were surprised by the answer. Many of the men replied that they thought about the Roman Empire several times a week, and quite a few said they did so every day.

YouGov decided to dedicate an article to this topic, accompanied by a survey. The evidence suggests that the viral moment was guilty of cherry-picking, although the data does support the idea that men think about the Roman Empire more than women.

What it does make more or less clear is that the Roman Empire is a topic of general interest, at least for 60% of those surveyed. So, taking advantage of the fact that I have many maps covering the Roman Empire and its history, I’ve decided to dedicate this first monograph to the subject.

There are 24 maps, and I promise it will be worth it.

1. The Roman Empire (117 AD)

To begin with, here is one of the maps that best illustrates the extent of the empire that people generally have in mind when talking about the Roman Empire. This is usually considered the point at which it reached its greatest extent, at the end of Trajan’s rule, in 117 AD.

You’ll see these borders on many maps, though some will also include territories that were indeed part of Rome at some point, but not necessarily during this period. This is often the case with Caledonia, the southern part of Scotland, between Hadrian’s Wall and the Antonine Wall, which was not conquered until the mid-2nd century. It is also true of some parts of Germania, which were part of Rome during the 1st century but had been completely lost by Trajan’s time.

On this map, and on any other map of the Roman Empire, it is important to understand that the borders drawn as lines were far more diffuse than a map can represent. The borders between countries as we know them today cannot be equated with the borders between powers in Antiquity. In some cases, such as in the Sahara region, borders did not even exist.

2. The Roman conquest of Italy

The founding of Rome is usually dated to 753 BC. During the early centuries, it was one of many cities in Italy competing for dominance. Until 509 BC, the city’s system of government was a monarchy, although from that point onwards the Roman Republic was established. By then, Rome had already established itself in its immediate surroundings, and this marked the beginning of its period of expansion across the peninsula.

Initially, expansion was very slow. The first step was to gain control over all the Latin peoples, which was consolidated at the end of the Second Latin War in 338 BC. From that point on, expansion proceeded much more rapidly. Rome had to fight three wars against the Samnites to take control of the entire central region, around 290 BC. It then faced the Etruscans to the north, the Greeks to the south and, finally, the Carthaginians. By the end of the 3rd century BC, the Roman Republic already controlled almost all of Italy and the three major islands: Corsica, Sardinia and Sicily.

3. The territorial expansion of the Roman Republic

Over the next two centuries, expansion reached far beyond Italy. The Roman Republic, with its effective army and naval power, took control of the Mediterranean coast of Hispania, all the territories under Carthaginian rule, the eastern Adriatic coast and the southern Balkans.

It also crossed into Asia Minor and took control of the entire coast of Anatolia, eventually reaching Egypt. Shortly before this happened, Julius Caesar achieved one of the most iconic and memorable conquests: that of Gaul.

4. The territorial expansion of the Roman Empire

In 19 BC, during the reign of Augustus, Rome transitioned from a republic to an empire. Augustus had been in power for eight years when he was granted supreme power, the Imperium Maius.

The war machine, which was so economically vital to the Roman Empire, continued to operate and conquer territories. Perhaps the most significant milestone was securing all the coasts of the Mediterranean Sea, which the Romans very descriptively called Mare Nostrum, our sea. But they did not stop there; they managed to establish themselves in Thrace and Dacia, reached the entire Fertile Crescent, and even managed to establish several protectorates that also surrounded the coasts of the Pontus Euxinus, the Black Sea.

5. The Punic Wars

As we have briefly seen, Rome waged many wars to achieve such territorial expansion. The wars fought in Italy were local in nature and lacked the scale of a world power of the time. It was not until they faced the Carthaginians that Rome was forced to view war in a different light.

In the First Punic War (264–241 BC), the Roman Republic succeeded in establishing naval supremacy for the first time, which gave it access to Sicily. The Second Punic War (218–201 BC) marked the first large-scale confrontation between Carthage and Rome, in which the Carthaginians proved their worth by putting the Romans on the back foot. However, in the end Rome prevailed and reduced what had been the most powerful force in the Mediterranean to a small, subjugated state that had no right even to defend itself against external aggression.

The Third Punic War (149–146 BC), which is not shown on this map, was the shortest of the three, as it merely involved the definitive destruction of Carthage, to prevent its economic recovery from posing a problem in the future.

6. The Conquest of Gaul

This conquest is very well documented in Bellum Gallicum, a book written by Julius Caesar himself. Precisely for that reason, it is also a gem of propaganda from the period, as it highlights Roman victories, ignores many of the legions’ defeats and excessively glorifies the figure of Julius Caesar.

This map shows the route taken by the Roman campaigns led by Julius Caesar between 58 BC and 51 BC. During those seven years, he fought dozens of battles against various Celtic tribes, which established him as a prestigious military leader. This gave him sufficient power to stand up to Pompey the Great and the Roman Senate, against whom he won the Roman Civil War. Finally, he was appointed dictator for ten years in 46 BC and dictator for life in 44 BC, shortly before he was assassinated.

7. The Legions of Augustus

Augustus, in addition to establishing the Roman Empire, was also responsible for reforming the Roman army and its professionalisation. The legions had previously been temporary formations created solely for specific campaigns, but following the civil wars it became clear that they needed to be made permanent and form the backbone of the Empire.

The 28 new legions did no longer answer to the Senate or to the general who led them, but directly to Augustus. Furthermore, they were distributed, as shown on the map, along the Empire’s most strategic frontiers, both for defence and to serve as occupying forces.

8. The Great Migrations

The Roman Empire reached an extent unknown to any other civilisation up to that time. The war economy helped to ensure Rome’s prosperity, but it was becoming increasingly difficult to sustain these victories over time. In the 3rd century AD, the first temporary breakaways began, such as that of Gaul in the west and Palmyra in the east.

This growing weakness coincided with what is popularly known as the Barbarian Invasions, although it would be more accurate to call it the period of the Migration Period. The term ‘Barbarian Invasions’ was coined by 19th-century historiography, although we now know that what actually happened was a series of peoples migrating from east to west for various reasons. This ultimately led the peoples bordering the Roman Empire to take advantage of its decline to seek a better life in those lands.

This is the context in which we must interpret this map, which shows the multiple incursions of the Huns, the Visigoths, the Vandals, the Suebi and the Alans.

9. The division of the Roman Empire

During the Roman Republic, there were two triumvirates that established an informal division of power; the second of these also established a division of the territory among three leaders: Octavian, Mark Antony and Lepidus. That did not end well and, for three centuries, the emperor’s power was absolute over the entire territory.

At the end of the 3rd century AD, Diocletian established the Tetrarchy, through which he divided the empire between two Augusti and two Caesars. The Roman Empire formally remained one, but in reality the four regions operated autonomously, which allowed them to respond to the internal and external threats facing each territory.

Diocletian’s arrangement was not permanent, unlike that of Theodosius in 395 AD, which is shown on this map. Emperor Theodosius granted the Western Roman Empire to his son Honorius and the Eastern Roman Empire to his son Arcadius; as a result, the Roman Empire ceased to exist as a single entity. The West did not last even a hundred years, as the barbarian tribes brought it to an end, but the East remained a regional power for over a thousand years, until the fall of Constantinople in 1453.

10. Forma Urbis Romae

Not many maps of the Roman Empire have survived. In fact, you can practically count them on the fingers of one hand. We have numerous writings that we know were originally accompanied by maps, such as Ptolemy’s Geographia, but what I wanted to include some original examples that have survived to the present day.

The map above was published in 1756 depicting the existing remains of the Forma Urbis Romae, a gigantic map engraved on marble of the city of Rome. This map dates from the reign of Septimius Severus (203–211 AD) and was originally composed of 150 marble slabs that together measured 18 metres wide and 13 metres high.

Thanks to the little over 10% that has been preserved, we know that the map detailed all the neighbourhoods, streets, and the most important urban buildings. It is not only a unique cartographic gem of the period, but has also been an essential documentary piece for better understanding how the city of Rome was organised and for learning about the structure of some lost buildings.

11. Map of the stages of Dura-Europos

It cannot compete with the Forma Urbis Romae in terms of detail and importance, but it is a good example of how common maps were in Ancient Rome.

The map above was found in the city of Dura-Europos, in present-day Syria. It was drawn on the leather that covered a Roman soldier’s shield and is one of the few examples of Roman military cartography. At first glance, it might not seem particularly significant, were it not for the fact that it demonstrates that the Roman army used not only written itineraries but also graphic documents in the form of maps to help them navigate and carry out their missions.

The Dura-Europos route map depicts the various forts and settlements that formed part of a military route along the northern and western coasts of the Black Sea.

12. Anville’s maps

The Roman Empire not only fascinates us today, but is an institution that has attracted people throughout history. This is the reason why it is common to find ancient maps from all the period the Roman Empire existed. This, among other things, helps us to understand in great detail how that period was interpreted at other times in history.

The two maps shown above were drawn by the French cartographer Jean-Baptiste Bourguignon d’Anville in 1764, although they were not published until thirty years later, after his death. The two maps depict the two parts of the Roman Empire, showing its provinces, the main Roman cities and, to make them easier to interpret, the modern names of each of these cities.

These maps help us understand just how much was already known about the Roman Empire over two centuries ago, compared to other civilisations of the time. In case you’re interested, Anville drew several more detailed maps of the Roman Empire, such as this one of Britain and this one of Gaul.

13. Map of Pompeii (1825)

Another example of an ancient map depicting the Roman Empire is this one of the city of Pompeii. It was drawn in 1825 by Andrea de Jorio and is one of the earliest attempts to visually represent the layout of Pompeii. Excavations at Pompeii had only just begun, and very little information was available, though this did not prevent de Jorio from publishing what was known at the time.

In a way, this map of Pompeii aimed to be scientific, although it is clear that its artistic value prevailed. Not because of a lack of intention, but because of the severe lack of information, he had to take many liberties. It is best if you compare it for yourselves with what we currently know about Pompeii.

14. Map of Ancient Rome (1886)

In Pompeii, excavation was necessary to understand what had once stood there, but Rome remained an inhabited city to the present day. That is why no one will be surprised to learn of all the information already available in the 19th century regarding what ancient Rome might have looked like. This map by Gustav Droysen, published in 1886, is a fine example of this.

It shows the trajectory of the two most important walls of ancient Rome: the Servian Walls, dating from the 4th century BC, are shown in dark pink, and the Aurelian Walls, from the 3rd century AD, in light pink. As if that were not enough, the map also includes a vast array of significant monuments and buildings, as well as the 14 regions into which Augustus divided the administration of Rome, numbered from I to XIV.

If you look closely, you can also see on the map the seven hills upon which the city was founded, according to legend: the Aventine (M. Aventinus), the Capitoline (M. Capitolinus), the Caelian (Mons Caelius), the Esquiline (Mons Esquilinus), the Palatine Hill (Mons Palatinus), the Quirinal (Collis Quirinalis) and the Viminal (Collis Viminalis).

15. The growth of Christianity in the Roman Empire

In the decades following the proclamation of the Roman Empire, Christianity emerged in the region of Judea. What began as a small sect within Judaism gradually gained followers throughout the empire over the centuries.

On this map, you can see the cities with a Christian community in the 1st century, marked in blue, and where Christian communities appeared in the 2nd century, marked in purple. At the beginning of the 4th century AD, Constantine declared freedom of worship in the Empire and, with that, Christianity ceased to be persecuted. This is what allowed Christianity to expand from the small concentration of communities, shown in orange, to virtually the entire imperial territory.

Finally, it is also interesting to note on this map the Christian movements that had already been rejected by orthodoxy by the 5th century: Arianism, rejected at the Council of Nicaea (325); Nestorianism, rejected at the Council of Ephesus (431); and Monophysitism, rejected at the Council of Chalcedon (451). All these doctrines, along with any non-Christian religion, were banned after Theodosius established Christianity as the religion of the Empire.

16. The administrative divisions of the Roman Empire

The vastness of the Roman Empire required an efficient administration of the territory. Many other civilisations and empires had already done so before, notably the Achaemenid Empire and its introduction of the satrapies.

The Romans were familiar with territorial structures such as satrapies, which indirectly influenced the creation of their own territorial administration, initially centred on the provinces, as shown on the map. The existing provinces were restructured on multiple occasions, always with the aim of achieving control and efficient administration, which was perhaps not achieved to the same extent as by the Achaemenids, Medes, or Persians.

In the 3rd century, Diocletian and Constantine established new hierarchical levels within the administrative divisions, with the creation of dioceses and praetorian prefectures. The aim at all times was to improve administration, defence capabilities and tax collection.

17. All Roman settlements

So far, we have spoken repeatedly of the vast extent of the Roman Empire, but the uneven distribution of the population across the territory is often overlooked.

I particularly like this map, as it marks all known Roman settlements with a dot. In this way, one can see which regions were, in fact, the most important in the Roman Empire.

There is no doubt that Italy was to play a major role, but perhaps what is surprising is the great significance of the region conquered from Carthage, the whole of Greece, including its islands, and the Anatolian peninsula. The Nile Valley retained the importance it had held in the days of Ancient Egypt, and the entire Mediterranean Levant retained the significance it had held in Phoenician times.

18. The roads of the Roman Empire

Another key to the success of Ancient Rome was the creation of a road network connecting every corner of the Empire.

There are hundreds of maps showing this magnificent network, but I have always found this representation, matching a modern underground map, particularly interesting. It was a complex road network, but this simplicity allows us to see clearly how every corner was interconnected, in a decentralised yet highly effective manner for sustaining trade.

If you’re interested, there is an interactive map developed by Stanford University where you can view several additional layers of the road network, as well as the maritime networks and the flow of trade along each of the routes.

19. All the towers and fortifications of the Roman Empire

This other map is very similar to the one we saw above. Just as settlements allow us to see clearly where more people lived, the presence of defensive towers and fortifications helps us understand which were the key areas of the Roman Empire, whether during its period of expansion or its period of decline.

Northern Britain, the entire Rhine basin, Greece, Dacia and western Anatolia are clearly the key areas. This consistently coincides with the regions where the Empire waged its major conflicts against its neighbours over the centuries.

20. Topography of the Roman Empire

To conclude, I have two maps that I simply find beautiful.

This one shows the relief of the territory occupied by the Roman Empire at the height of its expansion. To accomplish this, instead of using the classic colours of a physical map, it uses two colours that held special symbolic meaning during the imperial period: purple, linked to imperial power, for the lower-lying areas, and gold, linked to divinity, for the higher ground.

21. A mash-up of Middle-earth and the Roman Empire

As a final map, one that transcends the historical world and ventures into fantasy. It remains a map of Europe with the borders of the Roman Empire, but on this occasion the position of the mountains is altered and blended with elements of the iconography used in the maps of Middle-earth from Tolkien’s books.

I particularly like how the Goths take on the role of Sauron in Mordor, and the other Germanic peoples appear as if they were different tribes of orcs.

By popular demand, here’s a button for procrastinating, in case you have plenty of things to do, but you don’t feel like. Each time you click on it, it will take you to a different map from the more than 1,200 in the catalogue.

Give me another map

If you like what you read, don’t hesitate to subscribe to receive an email with each new article that is published.

Subscribe now

For the past couple of years, tensions between Canada and the United States have done nothing but escalate. Things began to turn ugly when Donald Trump suggested to Justin Trudeau, during a private meeting in late 2024, that Canada might become the 51st State of the Union. Trump posted that very idea on his social media platform in early 2025, and he has not let the topic rest since. What is more, less than a week ago he reiterated this idea, referring to Mark Carney, Canada’s Prime Minister, as Canada’s next governor1.

These recent tensions seemed almost impossible just a few years ago. The United States and Canada had been collaborating constructively for decades without their 9,000-kilometre shared border causing any tensions2, but this is a relatively recent development. There were clashes between Canada and the United States, and Canadian troops even went so far as to capture Washington and burn down the White House3. But perhaps it would be more appropriate to speak of a confrontation between the British Empire and the United States, since at that time Canada was still a British colony.

Canada’s path to independence was slow and gradual. It stretched from 1867, when the Dominion of Canada was established with a degree of self-government, to the signing of the Statute of Westminster in 1931. Throughout this process, the threat of a new open conflict between the United States and Canada never entirely disappeared.

The Red Plan

The United States did not play a crucial role in the First World War. The conflict had broken out in Europe and, although it had spread to virtually every continent, American involvement was difficult to justify, particularly to its own citizens. This meant that, although the United States did eventually enter the war in 1917, the British Empire emerged as the true victor, emerging from the conflict strengthened: it annexed the German colonies and remained the world’s leading naval and commercial power.

This latent threat led the United States to work on a plan known as the Joint Army and Navy Basic War Plan Red, popularly known as the Red Plan. It was a detailed plan to confront the British Empire, in which Canada, designated by the colour crimson, was considered the main theatre of military operations, given its strategic proximity to the United States.

The plan was first approved in 1930 and subsequently updated in 1935. As official US Army documents4 show, the plan was specific. As a starting point, it envisaged blockading the port of Halifax to prevent British reinforcements from landing via the Atlantic Ocean. Next, a column from Detroit and another from Albany would take control of Toronto and Montreal, respectively. Simultaneously, two other columns would seek to occupy Winnipeg and Vancouver.

Alongside the capture of the major cities, the plan also envisaged disabling the Niagara Falls power station, as well as other weak points that had been identified during the secret missions carried out by Charles Lindbergh5. Perhaps the most controversial aspect of the Red Plan was that Lindbergh himself recommended the use of chemical weapons at certain points in Hudson Bay.

The Red Plan also included a significant risk assessment exercise. It expressly warned of the power of the mounted police, which could not be minimized, as well as the importance of the Halifax blockade before more than 2.5 million British soldiers arrived to reinforce Canadian positions. Furthermore, it placed great emphasis on the fact that the British were known for not surrendering easily, so any implementation of the plan had to consider a fight to the bitter end.

This plan on its own might seem somewhat paranoid, but the reality is that the First World War had taken its toll and highlighted the risks of a confrontation with any other world power. The Red Plan was just one of many plans designated by colour codes to ensure preparedness for any possible circumstance.

In all the plans, the United States was always assigned the colour blue, whilst the other colours were used for the other powers. The Black Plan carried great weight, as it had to be refined as early as during the First World War, if Germany emerged victorious and was able to occupy positions close to the United States in the Caribbean. The most developed of all was the Orange Plan, which defined the strategy for war against Japan, and was partially implemented during the Second World War in the Pacific Ocean. The Indigo Plan, which assessed the occupation of Iceland, was fully implemented in 1941, although it was carried out solely to limit the advance of Nazi Germany and not to fight against the Icelanders.

The existing plans covered almost every possible scenario: Plan Grey considered action in the Caribbean and the Azores; Plan Gold, an open naval conflict against France; Plan Green described an attack on Mexico. There was even a White Plan that did not target any other power, but instead considered the possibility of an internal uprising on US soil. This plan was also partially implemented following the 1932 encampment of war veterans in Washington demanding their pay, during the Great Depression.

That said, despite all this preparatory work, the United States was not the only country prepared.

Defence Scheme No. 1: the Canadian response

North of the 49th parallel, Canada had also done its homework. Independence from the British Empire not only entailed the freedom to make its own decisions, but also came with the responsibility of being able to defend its territory once the British umbrella was no longer in place.

It was in this context that Defence Scheme No. 1 was born, a plan developed by Lieutenant Colonel James Brown, a war veteran who held the post of Director of Operations and Intelligence in the Canadian Army. Before making any theoretical assumptions, Brown took a camera and drove along part of the eastern border with the United States to better understand how border relations worked. His notes covered the terrain, but also described in detail the types of towns and inhabitants on the other side of the border.

With all the information gathered, alongside intelligence reports compiled over the years, Brown drew up a plan in 1921, almost a decade before the United States considered Canada an enemy worthy of a contingency plan.

Canada’s defence plan followed the logic of someone who knows they cannot win. Its army was insignificant compared to the US military, and its industry was too exposed just a few kilometres from the border. This made it essential to hold out against the initial onslaught long enough for support to arrive from other Commonwealth countries. And, as the saying goes, the best defence is a good offence.

Brown’s solution envisaged launching five simultaneous attacks on Portland, Fargo, Niagara Falls6, Albany and the state of Maine. These five attacks were intended to be dynamic in nature and were in no way intended to seize control of any city. Brown knew it was impossible to fight the US army head-on, but he could attempt to divide its forces so that it would take them longer to organise a ground invasion. Once the enemy army had deployed at each of these five points, Canadian troops would begin their withdrawal, ensuring that all bridges, railways, and means of transport were destroyed.

The plan was pushed aside in 1928, two years before the United States devised its Red Plan to invade Canada. The Chief of the General Staff, Andrew McNaughton, considered it dangerous to have such a plan to defend against an ally, as, if the strategy were exposed, it could cause a diplomatic crisis that would be difficult to manage.

The documents containing the details were burned, and only fragments were preserved. The only reason this plan came to light was because the United States declassified its Red Plan. This gave Canada the freedom to show that it had already devised a response even before the United States had even considered the possibility of attacking.

Epilogue

Reading these two plans today sends a shiver down the spine. The UN, NATO, the European Union and other supranational organisations were created to foster international cooperation and joint defence, but also as a mechanism to limit friction between neighbouring countries. In the West, we have spent decades growing accustomed to a non-aggression pact that made the need for such plans unthinkable, but reality has proven far more treacherous than we believed.

Having plans for everything, including the impossible, was not a strategy unique to Canada or the United States, but rather a common practice of any modern state. These plans do not speak of the likelihood of something happening, but of the need to be prepared so that surprise does not catch you off guard. In most cases, and certainly in the case of Plan Red and Defence Scheme No. 1, these contingency plans did not have the approval of heads of state. They were just internal military strategies in case it became necessary to implement them at some point.

These plans surely never disappeared completely; they were simply adapted to new circumstances. And, possibly, in past months these plans have been changing and adapting rapidly to the current times.

By popular demand, here’s a button for procrastinating, in case you have plenty of things to do, but you don’t feel like. Each time you click on it, it will take you to a different map from the more than 1,200 in the catalogue.

Give me another map

If you like what you read, don’t hesitate to subscribe to receive an email with each new article that is published.

Subscribe now

A few months ago, I came across a screenshot of Google Maps on TikTok1, which I want to use to begin the story I’m telling you today.

What do you think? Well, yes, on Google Maps, the Iberian Peninsula only has a 4.5 when it really deserves much more. And well, there’s also the curious fact that Google Maps has decided to include much of southern France as part of the Iberian Peninsula, you can check it out for yourselves2.

After that, I discussed the issue with quite a few people, but it became clear to me that there is no clear consensus. So I will dedicate today’s article to this topic, to continue the debate.

What is a peninsula?

If we want to determine the size of the Iberian Peninsula, the first thing we need to clarify is the definition of a peninsula. Let’s start with the definition from National Geographic:

A peninsula is a piece of land that is almost entirely surrounded by water but is connected to the mainland on one side.

Okay, more or less what everyone has in mind when they discuss peninsulas3: pieces of land surrounded by water that, unlike islands, are connected to another larger piece of land.

The definition in the Encyclopaedia Britannica is somewhat more detailed:

Peninsula, in physical geography, a piece of land that is nearly surrounded by water. The word is derived from the Latin paene (‘almost’) and insula (‘island’). In its original sense, it connotes attachment to a larger landmass by a neck of land (isthmus) narrower than the peninsula itself, but it is often extended to apply to any long promontory, the coastline of which is markedly longer than the landward boundary.

This definition is much more comprehensive than the previous one. It refers to the original meaning of the word, but also recognises that its use is widespread and accepted to refer to any promontory on the coast.

What matters most to me is that these definitions are consistent in focusing exclusively on the coastline. It is irrelevant whether there is another physical separation (such as the Pyrenees), whether there is a political separation (such as the border between France and Spain), or whether there is an underlying division of tectonic plates (such as the Iberian subplate from the rest of the Eurasian plate). If you look closely, three of the four reasons usually given for establishing the dividing line of the Iberian Peninsula in the Pyrenees do not apply. The fourth would be that it is the narrowest part of the isthmus.

But is this true? Here is an image with four possible lines that trace the narrowest point of the isthmus.

Without looking at Google Maps or doing any other research, which do you think is the shortest line? With the lines drawn, you probably already suspect that the answer is not the Pyrenees, but it is also not what I initially thought when I first explored the problem. Here is the length of each of these lines:

• Blue (Montpellier - Bordeaux): 423 kilometres.

• Red (Les Landes - Narbonne): 371 kilometres.

• Yellow (The Pyrenees): 417 kilometres.

• Green (Biarritz - Cambrils): 340 kilometres.

Knowing this, where would you prefer to draw the dividing line on the Iberian Peninsula?

On a historical-comic note, the Visigothic kingdom of Toulouse and Theodoric I would surely have voted for blue.

A cultural matter

Beyond the abstract game of finding the minimum width of the isthmus, the reality is that the result is irrelevant.

The definition of a peninsula is vague enough to allow us to establish the boundaries that suit us best. The cultural weight is undeniable, and it makes perfect sense that historically we have chosen to associate the idea of the Iberian Peninsula with a border that has remained almost intact for more than five centuries. A border that also has one of the most important mountain ranges in Europe and, if we want to be pedantic, also has a division below the Earth’s crust in the form of the Iberian subplate. As I said at the beginning, none of these ideas defines the idea of a peninsula as such, but they certainly simplify the concept considerably.

The case of the Iberian Peninsula is not unique. There are many examples within Europe, such as the Italian Peninsula. It is generally accepted that the Italian Peninsula is composed of the entire continental territory of Italy, excluding Sardinia, Sicily and the other islands. This is not governed by the minimum size isthmus we have been looking for, but as in the case of the Iberian Peninsula, it coincides with a mountain range (the Alps) and a political border (that of Italy after the Second World War).

It is much more complicated to explain why we commonly refer to the Balkans as the Balkan Peninsula. We can say that there is indeed a protrusion and that, in a way, it is mainly surrounded by water: the Adriatic, Mediterranean, Aegean, and Black Seas4. In this case, unlike the Iberian Peninsula, there is no isthmus that is narrower, as the peninsula widens continuously as it approaches Central Europe. Perhaps this is why the Encyclopaedia Britannica clarifies that the definition of a peninsula has been relaxed to include any large promontory.

If we are being pedantic, this problem exists with many peninsulas in the world, possibly the majority. Does the Korean peninsula include the entire territory of the two Koreas? Where is the border of Indochina? Does the border of the Arabian Peninsula correspond to the border of Saudi Arabia? What percentage of the state of Florida is within the Florida peninsula? Well-defined peninsulas are in the minority, although they do exist. There are some that are well-defined, separated by isthmuses that are narrow and distinct enough that there is no room for doubt, although only three come to mind: Valdés Peninsula (in Argentina), Paraguaná Peninsula (in Venezuela), Peloponnese Peninsula (in Greece).

Also, a matter of perspective

One of the most interesting comments I came across when I first discussed this topic was something as simple as changing the perspective of the map. This allows us to see the Iberian Peninsula in an unusual way, which makes it much easier to visualise the problem at hand. I took the idea and brought you a screenshot from Google Earth so that the borders don’t appear. Moreover, I drew a curious line that would define the Iberian Peninsula as a promontory of the line connecting the coast of Brittany with Marseille.

Perspective, together with cultural consensus, can end up being everything. The classic example is the definition of Europe as a continent. If we stick to the geographical definitions of peninsula and continent5, Europe would be nothing more than a peninsula in the western part of the great continent of Eurasia. Furthermore, that large peninsula would not include Scandinavia, which would be another peninsula of the great Eurasian continent.

This perspective, which seems far-fetched, was exploited during the Cold War by American propaganda to raise awareness in Europe of the Soviet threat. Robert M. Chapin published two maps in Time magazine in 1952 showing the Soviet Union’s advance in the world and how Europe and South Asia were being trapped by the communist giant. If this campaign had used the usual maps, the perspective would have prevented it from having the impact that it did with its two maps. In both maps, the Soviet Union is shown at the bottom, and all the ‘threatened’ territory at the top, as if it were cornered.

Beyond propaganda and questioning Europe’s status as a continent, this type of perspective can also serve to better understand the world we live in. The Soviet threat, as caricatured by Chapin, never materialised, but this same perspective made it easier to explain the great energy dependence that much of Europe had (and still has) on Russia. It was not a whim, but the reality that there was a vast territory, with vast resources, which has been providing energy for decades to a small Europe lacking in resources of its own.

By popular demand, here’s a button for procrastinating, in case you have plenty of things to do, but you don’t feel like. Each time you click on it, it will take you to a different map from the more than 1,200 in the catalogue.

Give me another map

If you like what you read, don’t hesitate to subscribe to receive an email with each new article that is published.

Subscribe now

Lately, the pace of news and events has been increasing at a dizzying rate. As I mentioned last month, it seemed that the year had started off with a bang, but the second month has been even more eventful. And not necessarily in the most positive way possible.

Be that as it may, let’s begin with the new edition of maps of the month. Here is a list of what you will find in it today:

• The United States and Israel attack Iran

• Iran’s response

• Disruption of international air traffic

• Pakistan attacks Afghanistan

• The Jalisco New Generation Cartel

• Map of Mexican cartels

• Panoramic view of Cortina d’Ampezzo

• Population density in the European Union

• Equatorial Guinea is not on the equator

• The CIA’s World Factbook closes

• Tintin’s Australia

The United States and Israel attack Iran

Perhaps the most surprising news of the month came on the very last day. On 28 February, the United States and Israel decided to attack Iran once again, as Israel did on 13 June. This time it was more than a surgical operation, like Israel’s last June, and sought to attack the Iranian regime directly, including military and political structures. The map shows the confirmed and reported attacks during the first day with red dots. Now the attacks are much more numerous.

I insist on what I have said before: no matter how you look at it, this is once again a violation of international law. Independently of how despicable Ali Khamenei and his way of governing Iran may be, international law does not allow this type of interference. The worst thing is that our current leaders1 are getting us used to this type of action. But if they succeed in normalising it, one day it could affect us more closely than we can imagine.

Incidentally, once again Trump has embarked on this adventure without the approval of the US Congress.

Iran’s response

As expected, Iran has not hesitated to respond and attack Israel and all US positions in the region. Less than three days have passed since the escalation of violence began, so we are completely unaware of the full extent of Iran’s actions in the Middle East. What we do know is that at least three civilians have been killed in Dubai by debris from intercepted Iranian drones, prompting a warning from the United Arab Emirates that it could retaliate against Iran.

The map shows the attacks that had been confirmed on the evening of the 28th with blue dots. Two days later, Iran’s retaliation has also spread to Oman and Cyprus, the latter in retaliation against the United Kingdom for its support of the United States and Israel.

The United States and Israel’s attacks on Iran continue at this time, despite the confirmed death of Ayatollah Khamenei. Iran’s responses also continue. Yesterday, Trump claimed that there are already successors willing to negotiate an end to the missile exchange, but today the successors have openly said that they are not really interested. And yes, hopefully the hostilities will stop soon. But at this point, I can’t help but wonder what the next target will be, where international law will not matter in the slightest.

Disruption of international air traffic

As is often the case in these circumstances, international traffic has been completely disrupted. The map above is a screenshot from Flight Radar2 taken a few hours after the Israeli and US bombings of Iran. It clearly shows how Iran had closed its airspace, forcing airlines still flying over Iran to take other routes.

But a day later, with Iran’s response, the disruption to airspace is even greater. Three of the world’s major international airports, connecting Asia with Europe, were closed: Doha, Dubai and Abu Dhabi.

You can see yesterday’s map above. The closure of Iran’s airspace is compounded by air traffic restrictions in the Middle East. On top of all this, there are the restrictions that already existed, such as the closure of Ukrainian airspace and the fact that almost no European airlines are allowed to fly over Russia.

The result: an aircraft corridor has been created across the Caucasus, flying over one of the most unstable regions in recent decades. Who would have imagined this 20 years ago? Certainly, not me.

That said, I admit that I am now rethinking the holiday I had planned to Asia in the second half of the year. I am a little reluctant to experience this instability first-hand.

Pakistan attacks Afghanistan

As if all this were not enough, we continue to see more conflicts escalating. With the pace of events, it seems like weeks ago, but only three days have passed. On 27 February, Pakistan launched a series of air strikes against Afghanistan and, after decades of continuous clashes, finally declared open war.

This conflict, to put it simply, has its origins in the British colonial era and the drawing of the Durand Line in 1893. That line was simply intended to mark the boundary of British colonial influence, but it is a border that has crystallised over more than 100 years as the border separating Pakistan from Afghanistan. The problem? Well, as the map above shows, this border divides the Pashtun people in two, which is why Afghanistan has never recognised it.

On this interactive website, you can follow the escalating events and the actions being taken by both Afghans and Pakistanis. I would like to believe that this will be short-lived and that everything will soon return to normal, but the concern is that normality along that border has been conflict for decades.

The Jalisco New Generation Cartel

The map above was published by InSight Crime and shows the area of operation of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, one of the most important cartels in Mexico lately, thanks in part to the leadership of El Mencho. His influence was such that the United States had him listed as one of the main culprits of the fentanyl crisis, for which there was a $15 million bounty on his head.

With this context, it should not be surprising that a week ago, on 22 February, in an operation led by the Mexican government with the cooperation of US intelligence, El Mencho was killed. What few expected was the worrying wave of violence that broke out in the days that followed, as this left a significant power vacuum in a country, Mexico, where cartels still wield considerable influence.

Map of Mexican cartels

While we are on the subject of Mexican cartels, I would like to share this interesting map that published a couple of years ago in his newsletter. It shows the main Mexican cartels and their main areas of influence. Among them, the main cartels stand out, such as Sinaloa (in red), Jalisco Nueva Generación (in blue) and the Juárez Cartel (in yellow).

Of course, many of these cartels have disputed areas and do not have the same level of hegemony in all of them. As if that were not enough, it is also important to understand that this is a very changing context and, worst of all, a tremendously violent one. Since 2007, when Mexico reached its lowest homicide rate, with 8 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants, this number has only grown, remaining above 25 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants since 20173.

That’s a shocking 25,000 people a year.

Panoramic view of Cortina d’Ampezzo

Changing the subject slightly, I also bring you this interesting panoramic map of Cortina d’Ampezzo, one of the venues for the Winter Olympics held this February. I saw the map on ’s newsletter and I think it’s absolutely wonderful.

This beautiful panoramic image combines the local geography with a colour-coded map of the means of transport and the different ski slopes available at this resort. This resort alone has more than 120 kilometres of skiable terrain, but the Dolomites, where Cortina is located, have more than 1,200 kilometres of skiable terrain within relatively short distances.

Population density in the European Union

You may be surprised that I am showing you a map of population density in the European Union4, as these maps are often extremely hackneyed, but this one is highly recommended. It is an interactive map that I first came across last month, and I spent a good while browsing it.

I particularly like its level of granularity, allowing you to see the population in each square kilometre of Europe. Thanks to this, you can see the large empty spaces in Spain, Scandinavia, and the Alps, where there are many continuous square kilometres of white space, as they are not inhabited by anyone at all.

Equatorial Guinea is not on the equator

This map is one of those that lead you to think that you have been fooled.

As you can see on the map, there are only 13 countries in the world that are crossed by the equator: Ecuador, Colombia, Brazil, São Tomé and Príncipe, Gabon, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, Kenya, Somalia, Maldives, Indonesia, and Kiribati5.

Do you notice anything peculiar about this list? That’s right, Equatorial Guinea is not on the equator. In fact, it is located completely north of the equator.

Yes, you have probably been fooled too. I was definitely not aware.

The CIA’s World Factbook closes

Although I said I didn’t want any more negative news, I think it’s worth mentioning this news item that I read a few days ago in ’s newsletter: The World Factbook has closed.

The World Factbook, published by the CIA, has been a global reference for basic data on countries and territories for decades. Public versions have been available since 1971, and since 2000, its information has been available on the Internet. For all geography lovers, it was a recognised place to consult and validate data consistently, without the need to search for data published individually by each country.

On 4 February, without prior notice, the official website was taken down with a brief statement saying that the project had ended. With this, a regularly updated source that could be used as a reference by researchers, journalists, and students is gone. Past data can still be consulted on the CIA website or even on the Internet Archive, but that does not solve the big problem: we will not have data for 2026 or any future years.

Tintin’s Australia

For the last map, I’m bringing one that makes me smile.

The author, Andrew ‘TmsT’ Kepple, says that he had always seen a dog’s head in the western part of Australia. A few days ago, he realised that the eastern part of Australia could also correspond to another silhouette, giving form to this lovely drawing of Tintin and Snowy, his dog.

By popular demand, here’s a button for procrastinating, in case you have plenty of things to do, but you don’t feel like. Each time you click on it, it will take you to a different map from the more than 1,200 in the catalogue.

Give me another map

If you like what you read, don’t hesitate to subscribe to receive an email with each new article that is published.

Subscribe now

Propaganda, in its broadest sense, is a fundamental piece of understanding history. Some believe that its use is limited to authoritarian regimes, as was the case with Nazi Germany, while others believe that it is something that emerged with the great wars of the 20th century. The reality is that we have had propaganda at least since we have had mechanisms for writing down the transmission of information, as the history of the Battle of Kadesh shows.

Today’s example focuses on the United States and how propaganda was used intensively in the first half of the 20th century. Mainly, to raise awareness among the population about the international situation and the role that the United States had to play in the First and Second World Wars. All of this was accompanied by some wonderful maps that were used during that period to spread a narrative in favour of warmongering.

The aftermath of the First World War

American society did not want to enter the First World War. The conflict in distant Europe was of no tangible interest to citizens, as it had little to do with their everyday problems. The media did try to report on what was happening on the old continent, and even managed to get some events on the front page and into the conversation of the elites. In 1914, there was much talk of how Germany had decided to invade and massacre Belgium, a friendly country, in an overwhelming and inhumane manner. In 1915, the most impactful news story was the sinking of the RMS Lusitania by a German submarine, killing more than 1,200 people, including 128 Americans.

It is common to read that the sinking of the RMS Lusitania was key to the United States’ intervention in the war. However, the reality is that it took a lot for the government to get the population on its side. Propaganda in the media became increasingly evident, talking about the cruelty of the German Empire and how France and England were resisting badly in the face of pressure. But the discourse continued to fail in the basics: the war was on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, too far away for any citizen to choose to sacrifice anything. It is in this context that, throughout 1916, more direct propaganda began to appear, such as this magnificent cover of Life magazine.

This map does speak to something that may matter to society. It speaks of a possible future in which the enemies of the United States managed to conquer the entire territory, creating the state of New Prussia and relegating US citizens to a small reservation in the state of New Mexico. The cover also suggests the possibility that Japan, as one of the United States’ main enemies, could end up taking over the entire West Coast. Entirely ignoring the fact that, if the country entered the war, both countries would be fighting on the same side.

Finally, the United States declared war on Germany in April 1917, using the Zimmermann Telegram, a communiqué leaked by British intelligence in which Germany proposed an alliance with Mexico. As public support was still very weak, the government was forced to create the Committee on Public Information, a government agency to control public opinion. In other words, it was a propaganda ministry, although Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States, repeatedly stated that it had nothing to do with the propaganda of other authoritarian states such as Germany1.

The interwar period

The Committee on Public Information remained in place until the end of the war, but had to be disbanded shortly afterwards, as the public and the media repeatedly expressed their dissatisfaction with it. In fact, this interference by the state had a profound impact on American society over the following two decades. It perpetuated a certain desire for neutrality that would keep the country away from the problems and disputes of other parts of the world. Interestingly, this quest for neutrality fought so hard for freedom of expression and against censorship that the United States soon found itself with enemies within its own territory.

All kinds of ideologies that were spreading across Europe were quickly reflected in American society. One of the most remarkable examples was the emergence of Friends of New Germany, an association affiliated with the German Nazi party. It was founded in 1933 with the aim of promoting sympathy for Adolf Hitler and Nazism as his authoritarian position was being consolidated in Europe2. At the same time, and partly in response to the spread of these ideologies, there were also many organisations and media outlets that attacked the discourse through propaganda. A notable example is the following map by Howard Burke, which appeared on the front page of the Los Angeles Examiner newspaper in November 1937.

Since the beginning of the 20th century, tension between the Empire of Japan and the United States had only grown. On the one hand, there were US interests in Asia; on the other, Japanese expansionism was taking control of China and, as a result, monopolising all commercial opportunities in the region3. In the mid-1930s, many European countries viewed Italian fascism, Soviet communism and German Nazism with suspicion, but in the United States, the real arch-enemy was Japan and the Japanese. And that is precisely what Burke’s map reflects, as it explores the multiple routes the Japanese army could take to attack the country directly.

Four years before Pearl Harbor, Burke correctly identified the base as the main target, but he failed in his subsequent predictions. He predicted the destruction of the entire Pacific fleet in the attack on Hawaii, after which he assumed that the Japanese navy would reach San Francisco via Alaska, destroying the city. At the same time, another mission would arrive from Hawaii to Los Angeles and San Diego, taking both cities and thus opening the door to a land invasion.

All this level of detail is not accidental; it is key to effective propaganda. When a message seeks to reinforce itself, it is enough to speak in vague terms, since a convinced person does not need much to perpetuate their position. On the other hand, if you want to win supporters for the cause, you require plenty of details to make the threat feel real. With pieces such as this map, or the thousands of books, newspapers, novels, comics, and films that promulgated the yellow peril4, rejection and racism against the Japanese became deeply entrenched among the citizens of the United States.

The United States’ entry into World War II

In September 1939, Germany invaded Poland, thus beginning World War II. As had happened twenty-five years earlier, the United States chose to remain neutral in the conflict. Despite growing tension and multiple propaganda campaigns from foreign agents, society still felt alien to any kind of intervention. Memories of the First World War were still fresh, and this time it was going to be much more difficult to gain the support of the population.

Even so, the government, which had so strongly promoted freedom of expression, had been operating a de facto censorship system since 1937, in collaboration with the library system. This was to identify and limit the dissemination of ideas classified as anti-democratic, such as communism or Nazism. This allowed other positions to emerge without any counterpoint as the de facto narrative in American society. Richard Edes Harrison was the cartographer who knew how to take full advantage of this position, with multiple maps that have gone down in history for their great impact, but also for their magnificent artistic quality.

This first map by Harrison was published as part of his 1940 book, Atlas For The U.S. Citizen. It shows the United States from a bird's-eye view from three different points, each simulating the possible ways in which the country could be attacked: from Berlin, with the German army entering through Newfoundland; from Tokyo, with the Japanese Empire entering via the West Coast; and from Caracas, with any enemy that had taken South America at the forefront.

The intention was clear: the world was at war, and friendly countries were suffering defeats in Europe and Asia. American citizens, to whom the atlas was addressed, had to be made aware that inaction would ultimately have consequences. And those consequences were made tangible and detailed once again on a map.

This second map by Harrison is perhaps the best known of all. It was published by Fortune magazine in 1941 and shows the world divided during the Second World War. The way the information is presented on this map is magnificent, as the polar projection modifies the perception of distance between the United States and the rest of the world. But to understand the superb propaganda weight of this map, in favour of the United States taking an active part in the war, it is critical to review the dates and content of the map.

The author uses different colours to represent the situation, but to simplify5, we will focus only on red, which shows the Allied countries, and black, which shows the Axis countries. The map was published in August 1941, but Germany had already broken the non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union after launching Operation Barbarossa in December 1940. Even so, the map still shows the USSR as if it were part of the Axis, which helps to give weight to the black colour on the map and thus increase the sense of threat and the urgency to act. On the other hand, if we look at the United States, it appears in red, as if it were already part of the Allied forces. But the attack on Pearl Harbor, and the subsequent US entry into the war, would not happen until December 1941. Harrison no longer thought about neutrality and directly showed who were the friends and who were the enemies in the war, even though the US public and government still did not want to be involved.

Finally, on 7 December, the United States entered the war, and just twelve days later, the Office of Censorship was created, which set in motion the government’s propaganda machine. A few months later, this would be complemented by the Office of War Information, established in mid-1942. In this new context, and now with the official backing of the administration, Harrison published a new version of his popular 1941 map.

Analysing the differences between the two maps helps to understand the radical change in the message of American propaganda after the country entered the war. The first map was titled ‘A Divided World’ and made constant references to the danger and catastrophe that non-intervention could bring. The second map changes the title to ‘One World, One War,’ thus supporting the idea of unity. In turn, the colour of the Soviet Union has been corrected, and the weight of the red colour is overwhelming, which attempts to bring a halo of hope among Americans.

This was something very necessary to think that the end of the war is near and that all sacrifice would not be in vain.

By popular demand, here’s a button for procrastinating, in case you have plenty of things to do, but you don’t feel like. Each time you click on it, it will take you to a different map from the more than 1,200 in the catalogue.

Give me another map

If you like what you read, don’t hesitate to subscribe to receive an email with each new article that is published.

Subscribe now

This is an easy question to ask and a fairly common one. At the same time, it is a rather difficult question to answer. Currently, with our well-defined borders, it seems surprising that there is no clear consensus on how many countries there are in the world, but the reality is that there isn’t. However, just because there is no context does not mean that we cannot talk about it and understand how we can arrive at different figures which, depending on the criteria we take into account, can be considered true.

Before we continue, would you be able to give me an estimate?1

Before we start counting, we need to define what we are going to count. Definition and terminology are a real minefield, so allow me to equate country with sovereign state, and stick to the definition established in the 1933 Montevideo Convention2:

The state as a person of international law should possess the following qualifications:

1. A permanent population.

2. A defined territory.

3. Government.

4. Capacity to enter into relations with the other states.

— Article 1 of the Montevideo Convention on the Rights and Duties of States

The idea seems simple: a defined territory, where people live permanently, and which is ruled by a government. To this, we need only add that a country must have the capacity to enter into relations with other countries… and this is where all the problems arise. International relations are extraordinarily complex, and the recognition of countries is not something that can be taken for granted.

With that in mind, let’s explore the possible answers.

How many countries are there according to the UN?

The United Nations was created with the signing of 51 sovereign states in June 1945. The aim, among other things, was to promote international cooperation and prevent another world war like the two that had devastated much of the world in the first half of the 20th century. These were the signatory countries.

Although only 80 years have passed, the world in 1945 was very different from today’s world. In the map above, the founding members of the UN are shown in blue, including almost all of America and the Middle East, part of Europe and some countries in other parts of the world. The countries that were not initially part of the UN are shown in yellow, including the countries defeated in the Second World War and others that did not sign up for various reasons.

The other colours? Well, in one way or another, they show the territories that were still colonies or dependent on other countries. The most curious case is that of India, which was the only founding member while still a colony dependent on the United Kingdom.

However, over time, the nations that had not joined the UN at first joined. As the colonies gained their independence and this was recognised, they were also accepted as members of the supranational organisation.

There were several key moments in this expansion. In 1955, many of the European countries that had initially been left out joined. Between 1960 and 1962, most of the newly independent countries in Africa joined, bringing the total number of countries to over 100. Growth was sustained until the 1990s, when the break-up of the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia gave rise to many countries that also chose to join the United Nations.

Interestingly, Switzerland did not sign up until 2002, just a few days before East Timor. After them, only Montenegro joined in 2006 and South Sudan, the last country to declare its independence, in 2011. In total, the United Nations currently has 193 full members, so here we have our first number, although it is better to take it as an approximation.

As shown on the map above, in addition to the 193 full members, the UN also has two observers, Palestine and Vatican City, bringing the number to 195 countries. If you look closely, you will also see on the map that Western Sahara and Kosovo are shown in grey. Neither is a member of the UN, despite having attempted to join the organisation, so we can raise the number to 197 countries.

The ongoing conflict between China and Taiwan is also an important consideration. Until 1971, Taiwan was a member of the United Nations, but its seat was transferred to China in the face of growing international recognition of the country, leaving Taiwan out of the organisation. Despite multiple attempts to rejoin, it has been vetoed at every turn by China, which does not detract from the fact that it is a territory with a permanent population, a government and certain international relations.

We can leave the figure at 198 for now. But since we have opened the can of worms that is international recognition, we will take a deep dive into it.

Recognition and international relations

Of the 198 countries that cover the entire territory of the planet, how many do you think enjoy international recognition by the rest of the countries? Well, only 188 are recognised by all UN members. The others lack some form of recognition:

• China: 1813

• Taiwan: 11

• Israel: 1664

• Palestine: 1575

• Kosovo: 1106

• Western Sahara: 467

• North Korea: 191 (all except South Korea)8

• South Korea: 191 (all except North Korea)

• Cyprus: 191 (all except Turkey)

• Armenia: 191 (all except Pakistan)9

But I love to dig into the complicated face of everything, so let’s keep going. So far, we have discussed de jure recognition, which refers to legal recognition. In other words, according to the UN, these are the countries and their international recognition, but the reality is much more complex.

If we include de facto countries, those that, although they do not enjoy international recognition, do operate as independent countries, we can add another handful of examples to the list:

• Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, a territory belonging to Cyprus but recognised as a sovereign state by Turkey. It declared its unilateral independence with the support of Turkey on 15 November 1983.

• South Ossetia, a territory belonging to Georgia, is internationally recognised by five UN members, including Russia, Nicaragua, and Venezuela. It declared its independence unilaterally on 8 November 1991.

• Abkhazia, a territory belonging to Georgia, internationally recognised by five UN members, including Russia, Nicaragua, and Venezuela. It declared its independence after the end of the Abkhazian War in 1993.

• Transnistria, a territory belonging to Moldova, not recognised by any UN member, but recognised by other countries such as South Ossetia and Abkhazia. It declared its independence unilaterally on 2 September 1990.

• Republic of Artsakh, a territory belonging to Azerbaijan, not recognised by any UN member state, but recognised by other countries such as South Ossetia and Abkhazia. It declared its independence unilaterally on 6 January 1992.

• Somaliland, a territory belonging to Somalia, recently gained international recognition from one UN country, Israel10. It unilaterally declared its independence on 18 May 1991¹¹.

With these six countries, we can bring the total up to 204, but we can go even further. There are many countries that operate de facto independently, even though they do not openly declare their interest in being considered independent countries. This group includes Rojava, the Wa State, the Gaza Strip, Bougainville and Puntland.

The matter can become even more complicated if we begin to investigate the territorial integrity of different countries and how some autonomous regions enjoy different levels of independence. We have extreme examples, such as the Cook Islands and Niue, two territories belonging to New Zealand, but which have independent international relations with dozens of UN countries and are even full members of UNESCO or the World Health Organisation.

If we look at international organisations with less political weight, such as the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA), we also find constituent countries of states. These include the constituent countries of the United Kingdom (Wales, England, Scotland, and Northern Ireland) and Denmark (Denmark, Greenland, and the Faroe Islands), but we also find the associated or overseas territories of the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, France, and the United States.

Considering the different levels of independence and autonomous participation in international organisations, we can consider some 60 more territories with defined borders, a stable population, a government, and some level of international relations.

Adding it all up, we can go from 198 countries to about 270. And all this without mentioning the independence movements with varying degrees of support that are spread throughout the world, since in those cases, we cannot say that they have a stable population and territory.

One last twist? There is also the idea of micronations, which are countries constituted on a minimal, or even imaginary, territory, with a small population and without any recognition by other states. The most iconic example of this type of country is possibly Sealand, but if we look, we can find another 50 examples.

So how many countries, then?

As you probably know by now, there is no single correct answer. But if we go back to the survey at the beginning, we can say with some level of certainty that the most widely accepted number is between 180 and 220.

Now that we are on the subject, to keep you entertained for a while, I’m going to leave here the link to a game to see how good you are at naming the 197 countries11. You’ll have to do it in 15 minutes, which is more than enough time if you have them all memorised.

Once you've taken the quiz, let me know how you did.

Since this is about maps, I’ll also leave you with a list of the 198 countries and the maps you can find for each one in the catalogue. Because yes, I’ve managed to get at least one map for each of those countries.

By popular demand, here’s a button for procrastinating, in case you have plenty of things to do, but you don’t feel like. Each time you click on it, it will take you to a different map from the more than 1,100 in the catalogue.

Give me another map

If you like what you read, don’t hesitate to subscribe to receive an email with each new article that is published.

Subscribe now

Leonardo da Vinci is one of the most iconic figures of the Italian Renaissance. He created one of the most recognisable works in the history of art, La Gioconda, the portrait of Lisa Gherardini about which thousands of pages have been written, not all of them with the same basis1. It is curious that, even though only 17 of his paintings have been preserved2, this is usually the best-known facet of Leonardo. Or perhaps it is not so curious if we stop to look closely at other works, such as The Last Supper.

Personally, I am much more fascinated by his work as a scientist and inventor. He was one of the first people in history to approach the study of science from an observational and experimental perspective. This allowed him to study the world around him in detail and, using his great artistic ability, to capture it all in many illustrated manuscripts.

His anatomical studies were meticulous, including the drawing of bones, muscles, organs, and even the circulatory system in great detail. Among his inventions and technological developments, he conceptualised many pioneering ideas, such as various flying machines, weapons of war, hydraulic systems and meteorological measurement systems. He also developed theoretical knowledge in the fields of optics, geology, and botany.

You will have read about all this many times. But with such an extensive professional resume, it is perhaps not surprising that there are aspects of his life that are not commonly discussed. So, naturally, today I will focus on his exceptional skills as a mapmaker.

Leonardo da Vinci, the cartographer

It is difficult to pinpoint the moment when Leonardo discovered his interest in geography and the representation of territory on maps3. Perhaps there was no turning point as such, but rather a growing interest like many others in the life of such a curious and productive person. What does seem to have played an important role was the fact that he was born in Tuscany, in Vinci4, and that his family moved to Florence during his childhood in the 1460s. At that time, Paolo dal Pozzo Toscanelli, a scholar who devoted much of his time to understanding perspective, was living there, which may have influenced Leonardo in his work on perspective. Yes, the same Toscanelli who drew the map that partly motivated Christopher Columbus’s voyage.

One of Leonardo’s earliest known landscapes, that of the Arno River valley in Tuscany, already wonderfully combines his understanding of perspective, his interest in the geography of his surroundings, and his skills to represent it on paper.

If we continue searching among his early drawings on the subject of perspective, compiled in the Codex Atlanticus, we find this one from 1480. Leonardo da Vinci could have chosen a more artistic object, such as a statue, or a large building, such as a cathedral, with which the idea of perspective would have been much more intuitive. Instead, he opted for an armillary sphere, an object closely linked to geography since ancient times, generally used to represent the cosmos from an earthly perspective. Although it could also be used to show the Earth’s surface, as if it were a globe.

It is essential to bear in mind that, in the second half of the 15th century, maps were mainly portolan charts used by sailors to understand the routes they had to navigate to travel between two points. Or sketches of inhabited places to divide the lands belonging to each ruler. There were some world maps, but most of them were limited to conceptual maps, such as those of T and O maps, or replicas of the world as described by Ptolemy.

Leonardo never wrote a treatise on geography, as Ptolemy did, but his understanding of the territory and the importance of finding effective ways to represent it was far ahead of his contemporaries. I could simply leave you with his collection of maps, and I guarantee you would be fascinated by their beauty. Instead, I am going to limit myself to just three and use them to illustrate how he achieved three crucial advances in the early 16th century that are fundamental to understanding the history of geography.

The map of Imola

During the Middle Ages, cities were mainly represented from a bird's-eye view. Cities had become complex settlements in which importance lay mainly in the buildings that rose above the ground, rather than in the roads and streets that were not represented. Sketches did exist, but these were only used when the relevant thing was to show the way forward, not if the aim was to represent the city as a whole.

These essentially artistic works gained popularity at the end of the 15th century and remained the main way of representing cities for more than two centuries. However, this type of urban plan had a fundamental problem: it represented the uniqueness of the different buildings at the expense of casting shadows on existing streets. In some cases, the perspective was forced to make the existence of a street clear. An example of this can be seen in the fabulous map of Madrid drawn by Teixeira in 1656.

More than a century and a half before Teixeira’s map was published, Leonardo da Vinci had already provided a solution to these limitations. In 1502, Leonardo was working for the House of Borgia as their private architect. They asked him to find out all the available details about the city of Imola, on the outskirts of Bologna, which led Leonardo to create a map of the city.

As we have already seen, Leonardo was a particular person, so he was determined to do the best job possible. He travelled to Imola and walked all the streets, taking detailed measurements of all the buildings, the size of their facades, the layout of the streets and the angles of the intersections. As a result, he drew the first map of a city with a satellite view, with all elements in proportion, and even detailing minor problems with the alignment of the facades.

Despite the value of Leonardo’s innovation in representing cities on maps, this practice was used very sporadically until the late 17th and early 18th centuries. This was partly because urban planning was not a priority for leaders until the late 18th century. Until industrialisation radically changed cities and their inhabitants, mayors were only concerned with ensuring that the city was well protected and that there was a sufficient supply of water5.

Relief on a map

The map of Imola already hints at the second major innovation that Leonardo da Vinci brought to cartography. If we look closely at the territory surrounding Imola, we can see slight changes in colour intensity. Intuitively, we might understand this to be simply an issue of conservation in a work that is more than 500 years old. This would be true, except that the areas with more intense colours correspond precisely to the highest points in the territory represented.

Leonardo also introduced the use of different colour intensities to represent the elevation of the terrain without resorting to bird’s-eye views. This map, which describes the course of the Arno River in central Italy, is perhaps the best example of this concept.

Just by knowing that the darker colours represent the highest points, we can easily tell where the mountain ranges are located. Moreover, it’s possible to identify the valleys through which the different rivers flow, as well as how steep the slopes of the different mountains are.

The use of colours was not limited to overhead maps; Leonardo also used them in bird’s-eye view maps depicting different regions of Tuscany for the House of Borgia. The combination of colour coding and the use of shadows in perspective makes these maps particularly powerful in representing relief. Possibly more effectively than any other cartographer up to that point. I would even go so far as to say that no one surpassed him in this regard in the following two centuries.

Leonardo da Vinci’s world map

Like anyone with an interest in geography who lived during the Age of Discovery, Leonardo was also interested in the shape of the world. Despite this, he is not usually recognised as the author of any significant world map, partly because he did not author any world map that marked a turning point, as other world maps of the 16th century did.

Nevertheless, among his papers, this fabulous representation of the world divided into eight circular triangles of equal size was found.

This map went completely unnoticed until it was first documented by Richard Henry Major. Major was a geographer and map curator who worked for 36 years as curator of the British Museum’s map collection, from 1844 to 1880. In 1865, he published an article about this map, in which he claimed that its author was Leonardo da Vinci and that it was the first map to refer to America6.

This claim has been the subject of much debate among scholars of cartography and Leonardo’s life. There has never been a consensus, but the evidence that has been provided over the years tips the balance in favour of Leonardo’s authorship7. Among other things, as Christopher Tyler8 states, there are references to this projection and this map in other plates compiled in the Codex Atlanticus, whose authorship is not doubted by any academic.

The map is usually dated to around 1514, as it makes direct reference to Florida, which was discovered by Ponce de León in 1513, but it is represented as an island, Terra Florida, a confusion that lasted for a very limited time.

Interestingly, the map also correctly depicts the North Pole as a large body of water and the South Pole as a large land mass, corresponding to the Arctic Ocean and Antarctica. Despite getting these two aspects right, both estimates were entirely coincidental, as at the beginning of the 16th century we were far from really knowing the poles.

What does seem reliable is all the information included on his map about Asia, where he shows India, Indochina, Japan, and even the eastern tip of Russia in considerable detail and with reasonable accuracy, all in acceptable proportions. This indicates that he may have had access to information about the explorations of various sailors, either directly or indirectly.

By popular demand, here’s a button for procrastinating, in case you have plenty of things to do, but you don’t feel like. Each time you click on it, it will take you to a different map from the more than 1,100 in the catalogue.

Give me another map

If you like what you read, don’t hesitate to subscribe to receive an email with each new article that is published.

Subscribe now

This year, as a new feature in the newsletter, I have decided to include a monthly edition in which I will include the most interesting maps or articles I have come across during that month. I will also bring some maps and articles that I had in reserve and that may be relevant to that particular month.

Another important thing to mention1: a couple of days ago was my birthday. And this is just relevant to understand the last map of the list, a special gift from my little niece. Don’t miss it.

Without further ado, here is a list of what you will find in this edition:

• The United States’ attack on Venezuela

• The international response to the United States’ attack on Venezuela

• The US threat to Greenland

• The Danish response to the United States

• Why is Greenland important?

• New map of Antarctica under the ice

• The Flood of Villa de Guadalupe (1819)

• Piltover, the city of progress

• The largest map in the world

• The awakening of the Europeans

• The mythological monsters of the United States

• A very special birthday present

The US attack on Venezuela

2026 has started with a bang. At the end of last year, the United States significantly increased its presence in the Caribbean, which was used to attack alleged drug traffickers’ boats. To be honest, I was convinced that this would remain a dubiously legitimate form of pressure from the United States to get Maduro’s government to change direction. But once again, I was wrong2.

The United States launched a surgical strike on Venezuela, as shown in the map above. On 2 January, at around 11 p.m., Trump approved the attack on Venezuela. In less than an hour, several locations in Venezuela, mainly related to the army, were bombed, and special forces managed to reach Nicolás Maduro’s residence and arrest him and his wife. This was just two hours and fifteen minutes after Trump approved the operation.

This, however you look at it, is a violation of international law. The only difference between this and the Russian invasion of Ukraine is that Putin was much more clumsy and did not achieve his objective in the first few days, as he had planned. Whether Maduro is a good or bad leader, a bad or terrible ruler, international law does not allow this type of interference. One does not justify the other.

The international response to the US attack on Venezuela

In the days following the attack, many countries publicly stated their views on Trump’s actions in Venezuela. This map clearly shows the division of opinion around the world. Some countries have openly applauded the US attack and the kidnapping of Nicolás Maduro. Others have condemned the US attack as a violation of international law, and others have done so while also condemning Maduro as a bad leader for Venezuela.

It is also easy to see at a glance that almost all the countries that have openly supported the US actions are countries governed by the right or the far right. In a way, these leaders have considered that the existence of a terrible left-wing3 ruler justifies this intervention. The same pattern can be observed in reverse, although much more moderately: criticism of the attack comes from left-wing governments, but also from centrist governments and even some right-wing governments.

Some interpret the responses of certain countries as the result of fear or an interest in aligning themselves with the United States and benefiting from possible future trade agreements. It is clear that we are living in fragile times, so it is important to choose our steps carefully.

The US threat to Greenland

We must not forget that we are in the age of social media and memes. Now anyone can go online and use AI to quickly generate a meme to express their position. And this image you see above is the work of Katie Miller, an American political advisor who was part of Trump’s first administration and was spokesperson for the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Yes, the one led by Elon Musk.

The image speaks for itself. It does not seek an in-depth analysis, or even a far-fetched justification. It simply calls for controversy; it is pure propaganda that seeks to generate tension and, with luck, gain a handful of support in the face of the reaction against Americans that the image may generate.

All this would have come to nothing if it weren’t for Trump’s insistence that Greenland is a target for his administration and that he intends to gain control of it no matter what.

Here I need to leave you with a curious detail that has been bothering me for a few weeks: Trump is fascinated by maps. In other words, I share a hobby with Donald Trump, no less. And there is a possibility that Mercator is indirectly to blame for the whole mess with Greenland. You can read about it in this article by Susan B. Glasser in the New Yorker, but I will leave here THE quote that is giving me nightmares.

I said, ‘Why don’t we have that?’ You take a look at a map. So I’m in real estate. I look at a corner, I say, ‘I gotta get that store for the building that I’m building,’ et cetera. You know, it’s not that different. I love maps. And I always said, ‘Look at the size of this, it’s massive, and that should be part of the United States.’

— Donald Trump

Denmark’s response to the United States

It turns out that, as much as Trump and his supporters want to take control of Greenland, Greenland is part of the Kingdom of Denmark4. So, as expected, this has also caused great irritation in Denmark, but also in the rest of Europe and Canada. After his actions in Venezuela, Trump’s threats cannot be lightly ignored.

There have been responses that are equal to the circumstances, such as that of Mark Carney, Prime Minister of Canada, in Davos. But since I’ve shown you Katie Miller’s map, I feel compelled to share this wonderful response I found on TikTok, on Ronni Reitan‘s account.

It won’t solve the conflict or end up in the history books, but I have to admit that I found the map funny.

And I’m sure it will bring a smile to more than one of you as well.

Why is Greenland important?

Many of you may wonder why there is so much interest in Greenland, when it is just a large block of ice with barely 57,000 inhabitants. Trump’s narrative is that it is a strategic piece in defending the United States’ position against enemies such as Russia and China. This can be seen in part on this map, but the reality is much more complex.

Firstly, we cannot ignore the reality hidden beneath the ice of Greenland: vast reserves of critical minerals. These include zinc, nickel, copper, graphite and rare earths, but also significant reserves of uranium, oil, and gas. All of this lies beneath the ice and may not be exploitable for decades; however, there are those who believe that controlling these future reserves now is crucial.

The other reason is purely historical. The United States maintained a considerable military presence in Greenland after the end of the Second World War, at one point having up to 50 military bases. Since 2004, that presence has been limited to the Pituffik space base5 in northern Greenland. In addition, the Igaliku agreement, signed that same year, obliges the United States to negotiate any increase in its military presence beyond this base.

And perhaps negotiation is what Trump is trying to do. In his own way.

New map of Antarctica under the ice

Speaking of ice, let’s leave this single topic behind and move to the other side of the planet. This January, the most detailed map of the Antarctic landscape to date was published. And I’m not talking about the frozen surface, but what lies hidden beneath those kilometres of ice.

Thanks to high-resolution data obtained from satellites and precise analysis of ice movements, the authors of the study have produced a map that shows twice as many landforms as previously achieved, including completely unknown hills and valleys.

Knowing the bedrock hidden beneath the ice will provide a deeper understanding of how the ice will move in the future and how this may contribute to sea level rise, and at what rate. It will also aid detailed climate studies and the planning of future explorations of the frozen continent.

The Flooding of Villa de Guadalupe (1819)

I found this map in ’s newsletter, where he refers to this wonderful article by Pedro Zurita6.

In 1819, Villa de Guadalupe, which was still a separate municipality from Mexico City, suffered one of the many floods that had been common for centuries in the Valley of Mexico. The causes were a combination of extraordinary rainfall and several failures in the valley’s drainage system, which had been malfunctioning for over a century.

It was a disaster, but one among many that would have been nothing more than an episode in local history had it not been for this stunning map signed by Lieutenant José Mendoza. On it, the blue areas show the extent of the water in the town, as well as the areas that were entirely ruined after the flood. A terrible event, but a truly captivating map.

Piltover, the city of progress

This map is a gift for all lovers of League of Legends and the Arcane series. It is a map of Piltover, the city where the Arcane series is set, created by in her newsletter after interpreting the information available in the game and the television series.

It is based on a map that appears in Caitlyn Kiramman’s room in the series, from which Cristina interprets the possible location of iconic places in the series. Likewise, it is not a truth, but an interpretation that respects the urban logic and narrative of the game and the series. A real delight.

The largest map in the world

I had seen this map on other occasions, but I hadn’t come across it for some time, until a few days ago when I found it on Mappery. This map, as you can see, is officially the largest map in the world, as recognised by the Guinness Book of Records.

It is a work by Swiss artist Christoph Rihs, created on one of the cooling towers of a former natural gas power station near Meppen, Germany. The tower is 131 metres high, and the map covers some 26,000 square metres.

Today, it can still be visited as part of the Circuit Meppen facilities, which occupy the site of the former power station. Here you can check it on Google Maps, so you can see it with your own eyes.

The awakening of Europeans

This map elegantly shows the time at which the inhabitants of each European country tend to wake up, revealing significant differences between countries. However, these differences are much smaller than stereotypes would suggest. After all, there is only a 72-minute difference between the Swiss, who wake up at 7:13, and the Greeks, who wake up at 8:25.

What is inevitable is to observe the patterns. The south consistently wakes up later than the north, although I admit I was surprised to see that Central Europe wakes up earlier than countries such as Finland, Norway, or Ireland. However, what the map does not show is the time at which each European country usually goes to bed, which also varies.

In fact, to clarify that people in the south do not sleep more, I will also leave you with this map detailing the average hours of sleep in Europe.

That’s right: people in Southern Europe sleep less than those in the north. Surprised?

The mythological monsters of the United States

This map of the United States created by Neil Parkinson is truly wonderful. It brings together all the folklore and mythology of the country and shows it through illustrations of some of the most iconic creatures in American geography.

It includes more than 30, some of which I was familiar with, such as Bigfoot (in California), Mothman (in West Virginia), La Llorona (in New Mexico and Texas) and the Jersey Devil (yes, from New Jersey). Of course, although the monsters appear at specific points on the map, often the myth extends over a much larger region.

A very special birthday present

As I said at the beginning, last Friday was my birthday. Those who know me know that I am a terrible person at giving gifts. I have no particular appreciation for material things and, in general, on the rare occasions when I want something, I buy it before sharing that interest with anyone. You could say that I am one of those old-fashioned people who does not value the gift for the gift’s sake.

But of course, there is always a gift that makes a difference. And that gift is this map you see above, one of the best I have ever received. My little niece likes to draw, so before I celebrated my birthday last weekend with the family, she asked her mother what she could draw for me. My sister told her that I like maps, so she took a map of Spain she found lying around and tried to draw it.

She is seven years old and, as with all my nieces and nephews, I adore her deeply. The love and intention behind this drawing far outweigh all its oddities. That said, please let’s admire together the oddities of the map. I love the size of the Basque Country, the unexpected new status of Huesca7, and the fact that Valencia is in the centre of Spain, instead of by the Mediterranean. The only thing that hurts a little is that there is no reference to Segovia in the map. In fact, neither has Castile and León, despite being the largest region in Spain8.

How would anyone not love this map? ❤️​.

By popular demand, here’s a button for procrastinating, in case you have plenty of things to do, but you don’t feel like. Each time you click on it, it will take you to a different map from the more than 1,100 in the catalogue.

Give me another map

If you like what you read, don’t hesitate to subscribe to receive an email with each new article that is published.

Subscribe now

Have you ever wondered how many people live in the world? It is a question that many of us have asked ourselves sporadically, but it is a figure that has been constantly changing throughout our lives. In 1987, we reached 5 billion inhabitants, in 1998 6 billion, in 2010 7 billion, and in 2022 8 billion1.

These are the UN’s estimates, but the truth is that we do not actually have reliable data. Many countries conduct censuses every decade or more, making it difficult to obtain up-to-date data. Moreover, several countries have no reliable way of knowing how many inhabitants live within their borders. The margin of error is estimated at 2% or 3%, so although the estimates might not be exact, we can definitely say that there are a lot of us.

That said, it is much more interesting to understand how that population is distributed. If we were to make a rough calculation, worldwide we would have a density per square kilometre of about 63 inhabitants per square kilometre, according to data from 20252. The differences between countries are enormous, which is why we usually talk about population density per country, but there are also extreme situations within each country. A clear example is Russia, where Nenetsia has a population density of 0.23 inhabitants per square kilometre, while the capital, Moscow, has a density of over 5,000 inhabitants per square kilometre.

Let’s dive into how population density has traditionally been represented, as well as some much more fascinating recent approaches.

Classic population density maps

Population density maps have existed practically since the introduction of modern censuses. Once the population residing in each part of a country was known, it became important for countries to visualise this distribution to better understand possible ways of establishing transport, communication, or basic public service policies.

The first population density maps appeared in the 19th century, being George Julius Poulett Scrope a pioneer with this world population density map in 1833.

It certainly lacked any kind of detail, but the problem to be solved was not an easy one. What is the best way to represent population density on a map? If we stick to the information from a single point, the map is illegible, but if I group too much territory together, such as the map above, the map’s usefulness is lost. The key was compromise, which came just four years after Scrope’s map, courtesy of Henry Drury Harness and this incredible map of Ireland.

This map was revolutionary in many ways. Not only was it the first truly useful population density map, for evaluating and planning the railway system in Ireland, but it is also the first map to use choropleths3 to represent data on a map. In this case, inhabitants and how spread they were.

Its innovation is evident in how the idea spread to represent data maps, not only population density maps, but of any kind. In a way, this was how graphic statistics found its way onto maps.

It is undeniable that these maps are extremely useful. If we take the example of Finland above, we can see at a glance that most of the country’s inhabitants are concentrated in the south, with hardly any people living in the higher latitudes. It can also be seen that there are some regions with a higher population density, which correspond to the country’s main cities.

However, it is impossible to determine whether Turku or Tampere have more or fewer inhabitants than Helsinki. It is also extremely difficult to tell if the population in these cities are concentrated in a minimal area of their province or, on the contrary, they are evenly distributed over all the territory.

Despite their limitations, these maps continued to be used for more than a century, as they were a simple way of representing population density, especially given the technological limitations of the time: paper and ink.

Alasdair Rae, population density in three dimensions

Just six years ago, Alasdair Rae began creating population density maps using the advanced data visualisation capabilities of new technologies. In these maps, he took small grids and represented population density as lines of different sizes for each grid. This allowed each high-density population centre to appear as a mountainous area on a three-dimensional map. This is how he gradually put together this wonderful map of world population density in 2020.

This map is truly incredible, as it allows you to quickly identify which areas of the planet have the highest population concentrations, while also making it easy to find large urban agglomerations living in a small space. It is immediately apparent that Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh have what is possibly the highest consistent population density on the planet, followed closely by eastern China and the Philippines.

If you look closely, you can see that there are many large bars in the Philippines, but there is one that stands three or four times above the rest, which corresponds to the metropolitan area of Manila. This capital city is the most densely populated city on the planet, with a density of more than 43,000 inhabitants per square kilometre.

When looking at this map for the first time, you may also be struck by how empty the planet is. We are not just talking about Siberia, the Sahara, or the Amazon. Canada, Australia and almost all of South America are practically uninhabited. Hardly anyone lives in western China, nor in the rest of Central Asia. Africa, for its part, has densely populated regions such as the Nile Delta, Ethiopia, Nigeria, and the area around Lake Victoria, but the rest is surprisingly empty.

Terence Teo, the population of each country in three dimensions

Along the same lines as Alasdair Rae’s work, we find the maps of Terence Teo. At the end of 2022, he began working on various population density maps using data provided by Kontur Population. Using R programming and the Rayshader package, he began to construct column maps of different countries around the world and published them on his various social media accounts. The first was this fabulous map of Taiwan.

This map was followed on his various social media accounts by maps of practically every country in the world, thanks to which we can understand a little better the diverse ways in which the population is distributed in different countries. Here are a few maps for you to enjoy some countries.

In the map catalogue, I am gradually compiling many of these maps by Terence Teo and have added some information about the different mountains that can be seen in each country. You can consult them here (there are 52 so far).

If you like this type of data processing in maps, I recommend you have a look at the rest of the work by Alasdair Rae (Website, Twitter, Visual Capitalist) and Terence Teo (Twitter, Mastodon, Bluesky, Visual Capitalist). You won’t be disappointed.

By popular demand, here’s a button for procrastinating, in case you have plenty of things to do, but you don’t feel like. Each time you click on it, it will take you to a different map from the more than 1,100 in the catalogue.

Give me another map

If you like what you read, don’t hesitate to subscribe to receive an email with each new article that is published.

Subscribe now

Last year, I wrote an article here about lost waters. It dealt with some of the largest prehistoric lakes we know of. Most of these lakes existed during the last glaciation, which peaked around 15,000 years ago. Back then, it was cold, very cold. In fact, the average temperature of the planet was about 5 or 6 °C below the current temperature1.

It all began about 110,000 years ago, in what is commonly known as the last Ice Age. In the field of geology, this glaciation has different names depending on the region we are referring to: Würm in the Alps, Weichselian in Northern Europe, Wisconsin in North America, Mérida in Venezuela, Otago in Peru, and Llanquihue in Chile. Practically, there is a name for each of the ice caps that appeared during this Ice Age, which lasted almost 100,000 years.

With so much ice stored around the world, it is not surprising that sea levels were between 100 and 120 metres below their current levels. As a result, much of the land submerged a few metres below the sea, considered part of the continental shelves, became dry land for a few thousand years.

Some of these lands, now lost, played a fundamental role in the history of humanity and even in the biodiversity of the planet. I will go through the most important, although I will also leave a handful of curiosities for the end, those that we rarely talk about.

Beringia

The Bering Strait, with a depth of no more than 50 metres at any point, currently separates America from Asia. But during the last glacial peak, there was a land bridge connecting the two continents: Beringia.

The temperature in Beringia was unusually warm. It is estimated that it could reach up to 10 °C during the summer, thanks to which it was able to remain ice-free, unlike Canada and the Arctic Ocean. This made the bridge walkable for at least two periods, the last one between 25,000 and 10,000 BC. And do you know what happened during that period? Humans crossed from Chukotka2 to Alaska, reaching America for the first time. They walked across the Beringia bridge.

The ecosystem was very similar to the current Siberian tundra, with many bushes and small vegetation. The map shows how there were lakes and rivers across the surface of Beringia, and also some isolated forests. The American fauna was completely blocked by the Laurentide Ice Sheet, so only animals from Asia, such as woolly mammoths and sabre-toothed tigers, lived here.

Doggerland

In Europe, the North Sea disappeared completely, and the British Isles were fully connected to the rest of continental Europe, with a territory known as Doggerland. In the central part of this territory lies the Dogger Bank, which is precisely what gives it its name, with a depth of only 35 metres. The rest of the territory is almost 100 metres deep, so it is possible that it was not above water for a long period of time.

Humans also populated these lands during the Ice Age, possibly alongside Neanderthals, as indicated by archaeological remains found at the bottom of the North Sea. This would be precisely when humans first arrived in Great Britain and Ireland.

Perhaps the most fascinating thing about these lost lands is the course of the rivers, which made the Thames and the Rhine part of the same river that flowed through the English Channel and into the Atlantic Ocean. And yes, during this period, the River Seine was also a tributary of this same great European river.

The most widely accepted hypothesis is that Doggerland gradually disappeared with the melting of the ice that ended the Ice Age. It is also thought that the entire region may have been affected by tsunamis caused by the Storegga Slides 6,100 years ago3. This put an end to the settlement of the region and separated British cultures from the rest of European cultures.

Sunda and Sahul

Southeast Asia, which is currently a collection of archipelagos with thousands of islands, such as Indonesia and the Philippines, was practically reduced to two large land masses. On the one hand, the Indochina peninsula joined the islands of Borneo, Sumatra and Java, forming what is known as Sunda. On the other hand, Australia merged with New Guinea and Tasmania, constituting what is known as Sahul.

In addition to being visually striking, this is particularly interesting when we consider that Wallace’s line lies between the two lands. This line marks a biogeographical division that separates, in a rather scientific way, the continents of Asia and Oceania. Looking from one side to the other, even though the regions are very close, both the fauna and flora are entirely different. In a way, this shows how, during the Ice Age, this line prevented the exchange of species.

As in the case of Beringia and Doggerland, these territories made it easier for humans to spread during the last Ice Age. At some point between 60,000 and 15,000 BC, humans managed to cross the Wallace Line and begin to populate Sahul.

More lost lands

The four examples of land masses we have seen are usually the most popular when talking about the last glacial peak, but there are many more examples.

Just as Doggerland shows how humans reached the British Isles, the expansion of the eastern coasts of Asia made it possible for Taiwan and Japan to be connected to the continent. This allowed the first humans to reach these islands some 25,000 years ago.

The Persian Gulf ceased to exist for a time, although it is believed that the region was too arid for anything apart from desert to arise. The Red Sea, although it also appeared to be on the verge of disappearing, remained perfectly connected via the Strait of Bab-el-Mandeb. After all, at its deepest point, it is over 300 metres deep.

The Caribbean and Central America saw their size increase substantially. The Yucatán and Florida peninsulas increased significantly in size, reducing the size of the Gulf of Mexico. The smaller gulfs of Panama and Venezuela disappeared completely. But perhaps most curious is how the Bahamas became the second-largest island in the Caribbean, smaller than Cuba and larger than Hispaniola.

The Mediterranean Sea also saw its size reduced, especially noticeable in the Adriatic Sea, almost half of which disappeared. The coasts of Tunisia, France, and Spain advanced significantly, but perhaps not as significantly as the connection of many Greek and Turkish islands to the mainland. If you look closely, what happened during this period is very similar to what was planned with the Atlantropa project.

Tierra del Fuego ceased to be an island. The coasts of Argentina and Uruguay advanced hundreds of kilometres, and the Falkland Islands were unified into a single island. And well, a new island would also have appeared, corresponding to part of the current Burdwood Bank, everything that is less than 100 metres deep.

Finally, as the icing on the cake, I leave you with another map illustrated as if it were a physical map which, in addition to the land masses and glaciers, also incorporates the lakes that existed at that time.

By popular demand, here’s a button for procrastinating, in case you have plenty of things to do, but you don’t feel like. Each time you click on it, it will take you to a different map from the more than 1,100 in the catalogue.

Give me another map

If you like what you read, don’t hesitate to subscribe to receive an email with each new article that is published.

Subscribe now

Before reading further, you must answer this survey. Do not worry, neither I nor anyone else will be able to see your answers. Today we are going to have some fun.

For those of you who are impatient, so you don’t have to wait until the end, I’ll give you the answer now: it depends. I know that’s not the precise and satisfactory answer that people usually expect these days, but it’s the only answer that can be given in short.

The long answer is that there are many ways to approach the question, as well as a set of reasons behind the one you have chosen. There is no wrong answer, but it is interesting to understand the history behind the idea of a continent and why there are discrepancies.

The continents of the Old World

For the Greeks, the Aegean Sea was the centre of the world. On either side were the known lands of Europe and Asia. To the north, the two lands were separated by the Dardanelles Strait and the Black Sea; to the south, by the great Mediterranean Sea1. This clear division led the ancient Greeks to call these two lands continents, which simply meant contiguous lands2.

It was only a matter of time before the Greeks began to debate whether Libya, the name they used to refer to North Africa, should be called a continent or not. In the 6th century BC, Hecataeus of Miletus reproduced the map of the world as Anaximander had described it shortly before3. It already described the three continents, with the classic separation between Europe and Asia, and using the Nile River to separate Asia from Libya.

In ancient times, there were many other ways of understanding the world. The Babylonians believed that their capital was at the centre of the world, surrounded by a series of regions with their own characteristics, until they reached a great ocean on the outer edge4. Ancient Chinese texts speak of a world divided into nine continents or regions, which corresponded to the different territories and islands of their known world.

The Greek idea of three continents might have been just one of many that went down in history, were it not for Ptolemy. Ptolemy was responsible for one of the most influential books of Ancient Greece, Geographia, which, in addition to all the knowledge it managed to preserve, also established a very particular idea of the world that solidified throughout the Middle Ages.

Before Columbus left Spain for his first trip across the Atlantic Ocean, Europeans had reached a consensus that the world was divided into three continents. Europe was divided from Asia by the Dardanelles Strait, the Black Sea and the Don River; Africa was divided from Asia by the Isthmus of Suez. Columbus managed to reach land, which he believed to be the eastern coast of Asia. As more explorers took the new route, it became increasingly obvious that they were facing a new set of contiguous lands, a New World.

In 1507, Martin Waldseemüller was the first to publish a world map showing the Americas separated from Asia and with an ocean on its west coast. Previously, some maps had appeared showing the coasts of America, but it was not clear that there was an ocean separating it from Asia. On this map, the Americas appear as an independent continent. Well, actually two, as Waldseemüller shows North America and South America as completely separate.

The continents in the Contemporary Age

After shaping America, European explorers also discovered Australia in 1606, although for more than a century it was considered part of Asia. During the 18th century, some geographers began to raise the possibility that Australia was not a massive island, but a continent in its own right, something that became the accepted view from the 19th century onwards. In that same century, the Russian Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen discovered the coasts of Antarctica5, although it was not considered a continent in the conventional sense until the mid-20th century.

This last detail is key. Surely, some of you thought when you started reading this article that the world is divided into five continents, as shown by the five rings symbolising the Olympic Games.

However, this viewpoint is not entirely accurate.

This flag was designed in 1913. The most popular theory is that each of the rings symbolises each of the inhabited continents: Europe (blue), Africa (black), America (red), Asia (yellow) and Oceania (green). Apart from the obvious somewhat racist symbolism, it appears that this was not Pierre de Coubertin’s reason for the design. This is what its author stated at the 1914 Paris Congress, when its use as the Olympic flag was approved:

Five equal, interlocking rings coloured blue, yellow, black, green, and red stand out against a white background. Moreover, these six colours can be combined to represent all national colours, without exception: Sweden's blue and yellow; Greece's blue and white; the tricolours of France, Great Britain, America, Germany, Belgium, Italy, and Hungary. Spain's yellow and red stand alongside newer nations like Brazil and Australia, as well as ancient Japan and young China. Here is a truly international emblem.

Coubertin’s idea was to create a flag that would, in some way, bring together all the flags of the world so that any country could feel represented in some way.

It is true that the Olympic Charter accepted for some time the idea that the five rings represented the five continents, but this was dismissed in 1951 because it was inconsistent with the original meaning of the symbol. Since then, the Olympic Committee has insisted that the idea is erroneous and that it should not be promoted as if it were true.

In any case, in the mid-20th century, we have a world divided into multiple continents. Something like this, shown on this map.

The reality is that there is no consensus. The education systems of different countries establish different continental divisions, although almost all of them fall into two groups: those that consider there to be six continents in the world and those that consider there to be seven:

• The seven-continent model is the one that prevails in the English-speaking countries and is the most widespread in the world. This includes countries such as the United States, India, Indonesia, China, the United Kingdom, Germany, Australia, and Canada.

• The six-continent model (combining the Americas) is the one studied in most Romance-language countries, as well as Greece. This includes Spain, Italy, Portugal, and all of Latin America.

It seems like a simple discrepancy: the problem would only be in considering America as a single continent or two separate continents: North America and South America. But I have omitted a third model, the one studied in Russia and some Eastern European countries. It also considers six continents, but in this case it keeps the two Americas separated, and it joins Europe and Asia to form Eurasia.

The continents according to geologists

The idea of unifying Europe and Asia into Eurasia is certainly appealing. After all, we are usually taught that continents are large areas of land surrounded by water, so why is Europe considered a separate continent? We have already seen that the reasons are purely historical and cultural, so from a geographical perspective, it would be logical to consider Europe and Asia as a single continent: Eurasia.

But if we want to be pedantic, isn’t Eurasia also connected to Africa via the Isthmus of Suez?6 This would mean that there is only one large continent: Afro-Eurasia. Or Afroeurasia. Or Eurafrasia.

Using the same reasoning, we can settle the question of the Americas. North America and South America are connected by Panama7, leaving us with a map like this.

With this model in mind, let’s dig deeper into the idea that Australia is a continent. I am going to focus on Australia and not on the idea of Oceania, since the islands included in Oceania hardly fit into the concept of contiguous land. What boundary do we use to differentiate between Greenland, with 2.2 million square kilometres, which is an island, and Australia, with 7.6 million square kilometres, which is a continent? It is clear that, once again, this is an arbitrary boundary. But it is also true that somewhere we have to draw the line.

If we talk about Antarctica, we also encounter problems. It is twice the size of Australia, with more than 14 million square kilometres, at least when it is covered by its imposing ice cap. If we stripped Antarctica of its ice sheet, we would find that it actually hides an archipelago8. Its main island would be somewhere between the size of Greenland and Australia, so we would have to decide whether Greenland would remain the largest island on the planet or Australia the smallest continent. With this new land mass in Antarctica, we couldn’t have both.

With all this in consideration, what do geologists think? Well, geologists say that the concept of a continent is not scientific, so it is a meaningless conversation from a geological standpoint. For them, the way that makes sense to divide the Earth’s surface would be by tectonic plates.

Tectonic plates are each of the fragments into which the Earth’s lithosphere is divided and which float on the Earth’s mantle. The most widely accepted classification establishes a total of 15 major tectonic plates and more than forty minor ones. All of this can be simplified in a map like the one below.

At a glance, it is clear that this does not solve our problem with the continents, but rather complicates it even further. The African plate, the Antarctic plate and the South American plate are the only ones that correspond entirely to the continent above them. The Eurasian plate would lose the Arabian Peninsula and Hindustan, and the Australian plate would include multiple surrounding islands. The North American plate, for its part, would lose part of the south to the Caribbean plate and would correspond to a large chunk of eastern Eurasia.

So, what is the most correct number of continents?

We return to the original answer: there is no correct number. All we have seen so far are different conventions that establish a number of continents based on history, cultural context and a great deal of arbitrariness.

By popular demand, here’s a button for procrastinating, in case you have plenty of things to do, but you don’t feel like. Each time you click on it, it will take you to a different map from the more than 1,100 in the catalogue.

Give me another map

If you like what you read, don’t hesitate to subscribe to receive an email with each new article that is published.

Subscribe now

Happy New Year!

After two years working on the Milhaud Maps project in Spanish, at Christmas 2024/2025 I decided to start an English version. That’s how A Cartographer’s Tale came to be a year ago, a place where I wanted to talk to you about maps on a weekly basis. Or at least a place to use maps as an excuse to write all kinds of stories.

A year later, more than 1,100 of you are receiving this weekly newsletter, for which I am truly grateful. As I always say, when you do something because you enjoy it, the numbers are not necessarily important, but it is always nice to know that there is someone listening (or reading) on the other side.

As many of you probably know, I also maintain a map catalogue in which, over the course of three years, I have accumulated more than 1,160 maps1. Until a few days ago, the catalogue was only available in Spanish, but since 1 January, you can also check the English version at the following link.

The idea behind the catalogue is to find maps that are of some interest, whether they are old maps, historical maps, propaganda maps, data maps or simply curious maps. For each of the maps, I make sure to give credit to the author, put the year it was originally published, and some information to help interpret the map. This information should help to better understand what the map is trying to convey, whether it is providing data, historical context, or the authors’ intentions.

At the same time as they are published on the website, I have also automated these maps to appear on different social networks with a link to the website. Here is a link if you are interested in viewing the maps on your preferred social media platform: Mastodon, Bluesky, Reddit, Instagram, Telegram, Pinterest, Facebook, LinkedIn, WhatsApp and Threads2.

I would also like to take this first anniversary as an opportunity to thank some specific individuals who have helped to raise the profile of this project. I know that many of you are receiving this thanks to one of them, but for the rest that don’t know them, please check their work. You will not regret it.

• , author of and this nice YouTube channel.

• , one of the co-founders of Mappery, who also interviewed me on GeoMob3.

• , author of

• , author of

• , author of

• , author of

2026 looks promising, there is still a lot I want to write about, and I will continue to do so on a weekly basis. I hope you will continue to read, and please do not hesitate to send me any feedback or comments, they are always welcome. And share with anyone who might be interested!

To finish, here are some of the articles that have been most popular. Or at least some of the most read.

By popular demand, here’s a button for procrastinating, in case you have plenty of things to do, but you don’t feel like. Each time you click on it, it will take you to a different map from the more than 1,100 in the catalogue.

Give me another map

If you like what you read, don’t hesitate to subscribe to receive an email with each new article that is published.

Subscribe now

Today is Christmas, one of humanity’s most international celebrations. As such, it is a public holiday in most of the world and for practically everyone reading this today. Among English-speaking countries, there is not a single one where it is not a public holiday, and among Spanish-speaking countries, only Uruguay does not celebrate Christmas.

Although Christmas is not celebrated as such, today, 25 December, is also a public holiday in Uruguay, but for more than 100 years it has been known as Día de la Familia1. This is one of the consequences of the separation of church and state that took place in Uruguay between the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The measure, promoted in 1919 by the government of José Batlle y Ordóñez, was not intended as an attack on the religiosity of citizens, but rather sought to secularise the country completely2. This did not prevent the tradition of gathering on 25 December from continuing, but it did make it easier for each household to label the holiday as they wished.

Changes such as those in Uruguay have been repeated many times throughout history. In North Korea, this was taken to the extreme and, to limit Western influence, the celebration of Christmas was explicitly banned in 1948, following the founding of the communist state. That same year, the celebration of the winter solstice was established on 20 December3 and, two years later, the birthday of Kim Jong-suk, Kim Jong-un’s grandmother, on 24 December4.

The celebration of Christmas on 25 December itself has a history similar to that of Kim Jong-suk’s birthday. The commemoration of the birth of Jesus Christ has been attested in Christian records since the 2nd century, but in no case with a specific and consistent date. Everything points to Pope Julius I establishing the date as 25 December5, the very day on which the birth of Sol Invictus was celebrated in Rome at that time. Both Christmas and the Dies Natalis Solis Invicti were festivities promoted to assimilate the pagan festival of Saturnalia, during which the Romans celebrated the winter solstice.

Overall, it all comes down to that, the winter solstice and how to label it.

Since the first human groups went from being nomadic to sedentary, the calendar became of great importance. It was essential to know the annual cycles to get the most out of agriculture and livestock farming. This is how the extreme days, when the days or nights were longest, the solstices, began to gain importance and be celebrated consistently. Just as the Romans celebrated Saturnalia, many other peoples had similar celebrations around the world.

The Anglo-Saxons celebrated the night of the mothers, Modranicht. The Germanic peoples celebrated Yule, a festival from which we have inherited mistletoe. Further north, in Lapland, the Sami celebrated the return of Beiwe, the sun goddess, who brought back green pastures for the reindeer. The longest night, Yaldā Night, is still celebrated in Iran, Kurdistan, Azerbaijan, and Tajikistan. On this day, families gather to read poetry until after midnight, while eating pomegranates and watermelon, whose red colour is reminiscent of dawn and the return to life.

In the Southern Hemisphere, these festivities were also common at the end of June, when the southern winter solstice occurs in this half of the world. In the Andes, long before the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors, the pre-Inca peoples already celebrated Inti Raymi, the day when the sun god, Inti, was reborn and the new annual cycle began. The Aymara people also celebrate the new year during the southern winter solstice, Willkakuti, to commemorate the return of the sun.

Social gatherings and the sun seem to be the general pattern for all winter solstice celebrations. And, personally, for me, these are also two things to celebrate. The days are finally not so short any more, and I can also take advantage of this time of year to see many people I don’t get to see at other times of the year. What I find much harder to deal with is the other pillar on which Christmas has been based in recent decades: the exchange of gifts. Not only because I never know what to give, but also because of the consumerism into which insatiable capitalism has plunged us.

Nowadays, Santa Claus is massive almost everywhere in the world. His omnipresence can be annoying, but we have to admit that his background story is very fascinating. The character is a direct descendant of the Christian tradition of Saint Nicholas6, but his appearance is closer to the English tradition of Father Christmas, the personification of Christmas cheer. As many of you know, we owe this image to Haddon Sundblom, who drew Santa Claus for Coca-Cola in the Christmas of 1931. He was not the first to do so, but until the Coca-Cola campaign, there was no consensus on the colour of his clothing.

Before Father Christmas, gifts were brought by many other characters from different folk traditions. In Europe, this diversity is still preserved in many countries.

Many of these characters have their origins in the Christian tradition of Saint Nicholas, although they have been adapted to the cultural traditions of different regions. This is the case of Ded Moroz7, the grandfather of ice, who knocks on the doors of Slavic homes asking children to sing if they want to receive their gifts. In Scandinavia, a gnome with white hair and beard, named Nisse, suspiciously similar to Nicholas, is responsible for spreading joy among the youngest.

In Spain, and in part of Latin America, the Three Wise Men still deliver gifts on 6 January, in fierce competition with Santa Claus. This battle is fought in many homes in the Basque Country, where Olentzero comes down from the mountains with his gifts, or in Catalonia and Aragon, where tió dispatches gifts while children beat him. Befana still visits some homes in Italy. The angels who accompany the Baby Jesus are in charge in some regions of Hungary and Poland, and the Baby Jesus himself is in charge in much of Europe and Latin America.

Whatever your tradition is for these days, have the best time you can. Enjoy being with your loved ones, going out to party, reading a book or sleeping a little longer than usual.

Happy birthday, Kim Jong-suk!

By popular demand, here’s a button for procrastinating, in case you have plenty of things to do, but you don’t feel like. Each time you click on it, it will take you to a different map from the more than 1,100 in the catalogue.

Give me another map

If you like what you read, don’t hesitate to subscribe to receive an email with each new article that is published.

Subscribe now

This year, viruses are loving me. In the last six or seven weeks, I’ve been ill three times, which I suspect have been caused by three different viruses. The first one attacked my digestive system directly, not being able to eat properly for almost a full week. The second one had the classic symptoms of a cold or mild flu, with a spike in fever one day and some discomfort for a few more days.

But the third one, which decided to visit me last Saturday, is undoubtedly the most troublesome of all. It hasn’t stopped me from working, cooking or tidying the house, but it has given me an annoying, deep cough that has ruined my sleep for almost seven consecutive nights1. Not every year, but sporadically, I do catch a cold with a cough that lasts a couple of days, but I don’t remember ever having this annoying symptom for so long.

Some people have asked me what exactly I had, but to be honest, I didn’t get tested to find out which three viruses were involved. As these are common symptoms and are more or less bearable with the usual remedies, knowing the specific virus was not going to make the slightest difference2. Despite this, the other day, while talking to a woman at the gym, she told me that this nasty cough is usually caused by the version of COVID that is currently circulating in Spain.

It was not until this moment that I realised that I have no memory of ever having had COVID. I have had what I consider regular colds a few times in the last years, but apart from the second virus this season, none of them have given me a fever. Some of them may have been COVID. Maybe not. At this point, with vaccines and six years of exposure, it’s impossible to know how the antibodies in my bloodstream got there.

And I insist, I don’t really care.

All this has led me to think that it has been a shocking six years since the SARS-CoV-2 virus, the cause of COVID, was initially detected. It passed from a bat3 to an animal that was taken to the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan, China. Here, this virus came into contact with humans4.

That same January, news began to arrive from China. On 21 January, The Guardian was already reporting that 139 people had been infected with a virus similar to SARS. SARS had killed more than 700 people between 2002 and 2004, mainly in China, and its high mortality rate had already set off alarm bells. The Chinese government did not hesitate for a moment, placing Wuhan under quarantine on 23 January. A week later, seeing that the virus had already spread to the rest of the country, it also imposed strict measures on face masks and transport.

From Spain, and from half the world, we followed the news as if it had nothing to do with us. Geographical and cultural distance, sadly, tends to limit people empathy. But as more cases were detected in other countries, we began to feel the danger more closely. Before the end of January, 26 countries had already detected cases of COVID, covering every continent in the world except Africa5.

By March, the risk had become clear. In the West, the proportionality of the measures taken by China had been questioned, but until that March it was impossible for similar measures to be taken in any country. Everything seemed unthinkable until Italy was forced to take action in the face of the imminent collapse of its healthcare system. On 8 March, the Italian government declared a lockdown of the whole of northern Italy, extending it to the whole country the day after.

The world needed a democratic country to accept the urgency of the situation, and that country was Italy. It may have been one of the countries under the most pressure from the new pandemic, but it was certainly not the only one that had been needing to implement similar measures for days or weeks. Italy’s first step allowed 23 other countries to also implement drastic measures over the following week in order to control infections. Then, one of the strangest periods in recent human history began.

Overnight, billions of us were confined to our homes, our attention almost entirely focused on the spread of the new pandemic. At first, we wanted to convince ourselves that it would only last a couple of weeks, but then two more weeks were needed, and then two more. Before we knew it, almost three months had passed in which the only thing that had happened in the world and in our daily lives was the pandemic.

Many people became obsessed with the data, publishing tables with the latest infections and deaths. They were on the news, in the newspapers, on the radio and even on social media. There were some authoritative bodies, but multiple individuals had their own way of curating the data and presenting the information. Many people who had no training in epidemiology or data processing also took it upon themselves to publish data on a daily basis6.

Everywhere you looked, there were tables and graphs. The data became like that annoying neighbour you can’t seem to shake off at the front door. They stuck to you and came back every day with a small update that made you feel informed, but more likely kept you obsessed. Obsessed under a sense of transparency, creating more pressure and fear than just being a good information tool.

The world moved on in different ways in different countries. There were more lockdowns and the use of masks continued to be recommended or mandatory for a couple more years, but little by little we returned to normal. Looking back, I remember that in April 2020 I didn’t think it would be possible to completely recover the world that had existed before COVID, but it seems that six years later not so much has changed.

For a while, many people managed to work from home, although most were gradually called back to the office7. You see more face masks on the street, and people are somewhat more aware of the importance of not unnecessarily spreading viruses to those around them, but healthcare systems continue to be close to collapse every winter.

And perhaps worst of all, we are still not prepared for another pandemic. Yes, we have significant technological advances that we did not have before the COVID pandemic, and some prevention systems have improved in several countries. But the situation remains fragile if we are looking for mechanisms for prediction, early detection and rapid response. Denialism has only increased in the past five years, and global geopolitical fragility only serves to fragment us and prevent us from establishing joint and global measures to keep us alert.

All this has little to do with what I had in mind when I started writing. I had many maps in reserve to elaborate on COVID after all these years, but as I wrote, I began to remember and felt a twinge when I thought about the ridiculous level of information overload we were exposed to.

That is why I have chosen not to share all those maps and to stick with a brief review of what it was like. That said, there is one map I do want to share because I think it is important to put everything we went through into context.

In the first two years, nearly 6 million deaths were reported worldwide, but this study by The Lancet shows how they increased during this same period to 18 million people. In just two years, 0.25% of the world’s population died, which is truly outrageous. The majority died because of the virus, but many also died because of the collapse of healthcare systems and the questionable practices that were carried out in many countries.

It is very difficult to limit the impact of a new virus, but it is much easier to have healthcare systems in place so that they do not collapse if we find ourselves in this situation ever again.

By popular demand, here’s a button for procrastinating, in case you have plenty of things to do, but you don’t feel like. Each time you click on it, it will take you to a different map from the more than 1,100 in the catalogue.

Give me another map

If you like what you read, don’t hesitate to subscribe to receive an email with each new article that is published.

Subscribe now

Last week, I wrote about the story behind the seven wonders of the ancient world. In addition to briefly recounting how each of them came to an end, I also mentioned how arbitrary it was to choose those seven wonders and not many of the other possible ones. In ancient times, there were many lists, and the consensus among them was far from absolute.

If you are at all curious, you will wonder what wonders are mentioned in other lists that did not make it into the canon. And yes, that is the same curiosity I have had on multiple occasions. So I decided to dig into the lists explored by Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher in 1906, as well as all the lists explored by Ainhoa Miguel Irureta in her 2021 doctoral thesis1.

First and foremost, I have focused on the lists that appeared in Antiquity or the Middle Ages. Mainly because they are closest to the period to which they refer; all the lists from the Modern Age tend to build on each other and to be much more repetitive.

With that in mind, the eight wonders I mentioned in last week’s article are indeed the ones that are mentioned most often when analysing the data. However, not all wonders are mentioned equally. The Pyramids of Egypt2 and the Colossus of Rhodes appear on the vast majority of lists, while the Statue of Zeus at Olympia3 and the Lighthouse of Alexandria4 appear on less than half. The Colosseum in Rome is also mentioned in a significant number of lists, although I have omitted it because all the lists that include it are modern.

That said, I will focus on the rest of the wonders that are mentioned, selecting the seven that appear most frequently.

The Capitoline Hill

The Capitoline Hill in Rome, the city of Rome as a whole, or even in some cases the Colosseum, is the non-canonical wonder that appears most frequently in classical and medieval sources. Of course, its appearance coincides with the rise of the Roman Empire and the cultural nationalism that sought to elevate Rome and its most important monuments to the same level as the wonders of more distant places. Cassiodorus, a 6th-century Italian author, even claimed that Rome was a wonder far superior to any other described in books, which had only failed to achieve the same status because it came later in time.

The construction of the buildings on the Capitoline Hill, the most praised in the lists of wonders, dates back to the 6th century BC. Among all the buildings, the temple dedicated to Jupiter Optimus Maximus stood out, as did the complex of fortifications that protected the hill. Of the seven founding hills of Rome, the Capitoline was the one with the greatest religious and political significance. This architectural complex did not have a single end, as it suffered multiple fires, reconstructions, and abandonments that caused it to lose its grandeur.

Temple of Jupiter in Cyzicus

Cyzicus was an ancient Greek city in Anatolia, next to the present-day Turkish city of Bandırma, on the coast of the Sea of Marmara. There stood the Temple of Jupiter, also known as the Temple of Hadrian. The temple was one of the most important in Asia Minor, built entirely of white marble and with dimensions comparable to those of the Temple of Artemis. It is possible that the only reason it failed to make it onto the canonical list was the choice of the Temple of Artemis, with which it had much in common.

Even so, perhaps the most interesting thing about this building was not its size, but the architectural engineering behind its construction. According to Pliny the Elder, the temple had a mechanism made of gold threads that allowed light and air to enter the temple through the joints in the walls. Like many buildings in the area, successive earthquakes and lack of maintenance eventually destroyed it around the 5th century AD. However, as shown in the image above, there are still impressive remains that attest to the grandeur of the temple.

Thebes, the city of a hundred gates

With the archaeological work that has been carried out in Egypt over the last two centuries, it is easy to appreciate the grandeur of this wonder. Thebes of the hundred gates5, was the capital of the New Kingdom of Egypt and corresponds to what we now know as Luxor, the city that was built on the ruins of Thebes. As with Rome or Babylon, the fame of Thebes was not limited to a single building or monument, but to the city as a whole, with its many temples, walls and memorable colossi.

Today, anyone travelling to Egypt can enjoy the Temple of Luxor, shown in the image above; the Temple of Karnak, with 134 columns and multiple obelisks; and the Avenue of the Sphinxes, with more than a thousand sphinxes stretching over three kilometres, connecting the Temple of Luxor and the Temple of Karnak. I was fortunate enough to visit it a few years ago and can confirm that it is one of the most incredible places I have ever been to. And despite the grandeur of its ruins, what we see today is only a small part of what it was at its peak.

Tomb of Cyrus the Great

Cyrus II the Great was one of the most important leaders of antiquity. Not only did he establish the Achaemenid Empire, the first Persian empire, but he also expanded his power from the Indus River to the Dardanelles Strait. His tomb, eleven metres high and with artistic influences from different corners of his empire, became an emblem of the Persian people. This admiration spread throughout the Hellenistic world and earned it a place on many lists of wonders of the ancient world.

The funerary monument dedicated to Cyrus the Great has been preserved almost perfectly to this day, which has helped to keep the myth alive. Today, it can be visited at the Pasargadae site, 100 kilometres from Shiraz, in southern Iran. UNESCO recognised the value of the Pasargadae complex, declaring it a World Heritage Site in 2004.

Speaking of Cyrus, it is worth mentioning that Cyrus’ Palace in Ecbatana also appears on many lists, replacing the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. That palace was repeatedly described as a building constructed with stones of different colours joined together with gold. This luxury, which brought fame to the palace, has not been corroborated by any archaeological evidence to date.

The Theatre of Heraclea Lyncestis

In southern North Macedonia, on the outskirts of Bitola, stands one of the many theatres built in Ancient Greece. If you visit it today, you can appreciate the typical acoustics of a medium-sized Hellenistic theatre, without any monumental features that make it more interesting than others. So why was it included in many lists of wonders of the ancient world? We owe this to Gregory of Tours, who included the theatre in his list of wonders in the 6th century, eight centuries after its construction.

To justify its inclusion, Gregory of Tours claimed that this theatre was carved directly into the mountain, so that the entire theatre was formed from a single piece of marble. He was not only referring to the seats, but also the walls, arches and sculptures, which were all part of the same rock. Of course, none of this was true at any time, but this example shows how mythical the stories behind many of these wonders are.

The Labyrinth of Egypt

Of all the wonders I bring you today, this is by far the one that fascinates me the most. It is a construction dating from 1850 BC that was located next to the pyramid of Amenemhat III in Hawara, Egypt. According to Herodotus, it was a complex of twelve covered and interconnected palaces, with more than three thousand rooms and multiple courtyards built on two levels, one of them underground. It was also completely surrounded by monumentally sculpted white marble columns. According to later authors, such as Pliny the Elder, this labyrinth served as inspiration for the creation of the Labyrinth of Crete, which is why it possibly gained more popularity in Classical Antiquity.

Archaeological remains of the labyrinth have been found next to the pyramid of Amenemhat III, although these are limited to sculptures and columns. It is believed that this wonder of antiquity was gradually dismantled during the Hellenistic and Roman periods, although there is no consensus on when it disappeared completely.

It is worth noting that, of all the non-canonical wonders, this is the one that possibly appears on the most lists during the modern age. In fact, the fascination with this wonder was not only mine, but also that of people like Athanasius Kircher, who drew this map of the labyrinth following the descriptions of various authors of Antiquity.

The Statue of Bellerophon in Smyrna

Bellerophon was a hero of Greek mythology who, among other feats, managed to kill the Chimera and ride Pegasus. His statue in Smyrna6 became the wonder that replaced the Zeus of Olympia in the lists of wonders when Christianity prevailed in the Roman Empire. This not only eradicated paganism from the lists of wonders, but also included a reference that could easily be related to Christian warriors such as St. George.

The first mention came from Cosmas of Maiuma, who described it as a metal statue of Bellerophon riding Pegasus, balanced on the wall of Smyrna. Later descriptions, such as that of the Venerable Bede, were much more fanciful, claiming that the iron statue was suspended in the air without the need for chains, thanks to the great power of the magnetic stones that surrounded it.

This wonder was tremendously popular during the Middle Ages, but beyond the accounts of various writers, no other ancient source or archaeological record has been found to suggest that anything remotely similar ever existed.

Epilogue: more wonders

The various lists contain a multitude of other wonders, some of which will surely be familiar to many of you. Among those that are still preserved and can be visited, either in their original location or relocated, are the Pergamon Altar on the Acropolis of Pergamon, the Colossi of Memnon and the Theatre of Myra.

Of many others, only a few archaeological remains or historical records remain. This is the case of the Athena Parthenos, the Sanctuary of Asclepius at Epidaurus and the Altar of the Horns of Delos.

And, of course, many of the wonders are similar in nature to the Gardens of Babylon or the Statue of Bellerophon, such as Noah’s Ark, Solomon’s Temple, and the Labyrinth of Crete.

By popular demand, here’s a button for procrastinating, in case you have plenty of things to do, but you don’t feel like. Each time you click on it, it will take you to a different map from the more than 1,100 in the catalogue.

Give me another map

If you like what you read, don’t hesitate to subscribe to receive an email with each new article that is published.

Subscribe now

The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World have fascinated me since I was a child. I remember coming across them for the first time in a historical atlas at my parents’ house, and I know that I looked up information about them at the public library on numerous occasions. In a way, admiring those monuments of the past helped me to understand a little better the changing nature of history, with its golden ages and subsequent declines.

Over the years, I was surprised to learn that, in reality, the idea of the seven wonders of the ancient world is more or less a recent construct, the result of a limited understanding of the ancient world. With Alexander the Great and the expansion of the Hellenistic world, many Greeks visited places as far away as Persia, Mesopotamia and Egypt, each of them compiling their own list of iconic monuments. But generally, not because they were extraordinary places, but because they were considered sites that everyone should visit1.

In 1906, Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher compiled more than 18 lists that appeared in various ancient texts. What may surprise many of you is that only two of the lists contained the same distinctive buildings and that, between them, they listed up to 22 monuments in different corners of Anatolia, Persia, Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece… and even Rome.

So how did we reach a consensus on the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World?

With the Renaissance, Europe became obsessed with the study of Antiquity. Classical aesthetics gradually became dominant in architecture and, at the same time, the search for the great monuments of antiquity continued. In 1540, the Spaniard Pedro Mejía published Silva de varia lección2, which included the first modern reference to the wonders of antiquity, although he himself mentioned that there were multiple lists with no consensus among authors.

Taking this subtle idea as a reference, the Dutch painter Maarten van Heemskerck made a series of drawings depicting the seven wonders of the ancient world. Philips Galle turned these drawings into engravings, publishing them as Octo Mundi Miracula in 1572. They were a massive success throughout Europe and, as a result, established what we now know as the seven canonical wonders of the ancient world3.

Taking advantage of these engravings, today I will go through the brief history of each of these wonders, which only coexisted for a limited period of just over 50 years.

The Great Pyramid of Giza

Lofty wonders of pyramids, Pharaohs’ kings

Built stepped structures, as monuments for the buried,

They raised them, and showed the sun’s rays

To fall nearby, at the boundary of great Memphis.

It is by far the oldest of all the wonders on the list, having been built around 2600 BC. Surprisingly, it is also the only one that remains standing today. Although the canonical wonder refers exclusively to the Pyramid of Cheops, the largest of all, there are some lists that do refer to the Giza Pyramids complex, which also includes the pyramids of Khafre and Menkaure.

Originally, the pyramid stood 146.6 metres high, remaining the tallest man-made structure for 3,800 years4. It was also covered with white limestone, which gave the pyramid its characteristic shine. When this covering was lost, not only did it lose its shine, but it also lost a few metres in height.

As it is the only one of the wonders that has survived to this day, we can clearly see that Heemskerck never visited that place and did not have a good description of what the pyramids might have looked like. In a way, this difference serves to caution us about the rest of the representations, which are possibly imaginative and exaggerated.

The Lighthouse of Alexandria

For voyages, you built, Ptolemy, careful guide,

A lighthouse for the night, so when dark night lay still,

Bright torches, in the moon’s place, would shine light,

So that the Nile’s treacherous shores be approached more safely.

This marvel, as the verse says, was built during the reign of Ptolemy II (280-247 BC) on the island of Pharos, in the Nile Delta, near the city of Alexandria. It is estimated to have been about 100 metres high and, according to surviving descriptions, it was composed of three sections: a square base, an octagonal middle section and a circular upper section. At the top, the lighthouse had mirrors that reflected sunlight over long distances during the day. At night, a fire was lit, which also helped sailors locate the delta and enter the port of Alexandria safely.

Between 956 and 1303, three earthquakes caused serious damage to the lighthouse, leading to its partial ruin and abandonment. In 1480, the remains were reused to build the current Fort Qaitbey on the same site.

The Hanging Gardens of Babylon

Imperious, with her husband’s head cut off,

Semiramis ordered lofty Babylon enclosed

With baked-brick walls, and gates with firm bitumen

One hundred added, and above them her noble tomb.

This is perhaps the most controversial of all the wonders. In his illustrations, Heemskerck focused on the wall of Babylon, although this wonder crystallised in the canonical list with the city’s other great monument described in other lists: the Hanging Gardens. If it were only for this, it would not be so controversial, but it is also the only one of the wonders with no consensus on its existence.

To date, we have nothing more than secondary sources without any archaeological remains. However, there are classical texts that describe the engineering work in great detail: landscaped terraces full of trees and shrubs, along with an irrigation system that used an Archimedes’ screw to harness water from the Euphrates. Recently, some historians, such as Stephanie Dalley, have suggested that the wonder actually referred to the gardens built in Nineveh by Sennacherib.

On the contrary, we do have archaeological remains of the walls mentioned by Heemskerck. Not only do we have evidence of the foundations of the walls5, but some monumental parts are preserved in great detail. And of course, I am referring to the Gate of Ishtar, which is currently preserved in the Pergamon Museum in Berlin.

The Temple of Artemis

An Amazon built this in Ephesus for you, Artemis, a sacred

Temple, a luxurious and great Asian ornament.

A marsh held its deep foundations, laid upon charcoals beforehand,

So earth might stand unmoved in a quake.

The Temple of Artemis was located in the ancient city of Ephesus, now on the western coast of Turkey. It was renowned for its grandeur, although there is evidence that it was rebuilt at least twice, the last time after a fire in 356 BC. In its third phase, it remained standing for more than 600 years, until 391 AD, when Emperor Theodosius decided to close it down permanently. The building may have had already been damaged during the Gothic raids in 268 AD, but its final destruction did not take place until 401 AD.

Its third phase was the most grandiose of all. It is said to have been built entirely of marble, measuring 130 metres long, 70 metres wide and about 20 metres high. This is difficult to imagine, so it is better to say that almost all of its dimensions are twice those of the Parthenon in Athens, one of the most iconic buildings of this style preserved in Ancient Greece. In addition to its size, the Temple of Artemis also incorporated 127 columns covered in gold and silver, as well as multiple sculptures and motifs that made it a unique temple.

The Statue of Zeus at Olympia

Elis, mother of Olympia, who signals Achaea

With famous games and records, she houses wonders:

Showing Phidias’ Zeus, carved from white ivory,

Whose hair and nod once shook Olympus.

Phidias is possibly the most renowned sculptor of Ancient Greece. Among other things, he was responsible for the reconstruction of the Acropolis of Athens, as well as the iconic statue of Athena that stood inside the Parthenon. But his masterpiece, according to all classical sources, was his statue of Zeus at Olympia. Standing 12.4 metres tall, the sculpture of the seated god occupied half the length of the temple’s hall. Zeus’ head was so close to the temple ceiling that it gave the impression that, if he stood up, he would break through the roof of the building.

It was built in 435 BC, and with this sculpture, Phidias had to solve the problem of the weight of the stone. To achieve this, he created a large wooden structure, on which he placed ivory plates and gold panels. The final decorations consisted of paint and ornaments of ebony, ivory, gold, and other precious stones.

Its magnificence is made even more evident by testimonies such as that of the Roman emperor Caligula, who requested that the statue be moved to Rome and that the head of Zeus be replaced with his own. We know that this did not happen, but it is not known exactly what happened to it. Some sources suggest that it was destroyed along with the temple during a fire in 425 AD, while others suggest that it may have been moved to Constantinople and destroyed in another fire in 475 AD. Whatever the case, the statue has not survived to the present day, and there are no records of its existence since the 6th century AD.

The Colossus of Rhodes

The Colossus, said to be 700 cubits,

Equal in mass to a tower, under the Sun’s name,

Was made of hollow bronze, with a cavern of stone inside

Among the Rhodians it received sacred honors.

Perhaps the most fascinating thing about this marvel is how it has been captured in the popular imagination. Historically, it has been depicted straddling the entrance to the harbour, forcing all ships to pass underneath it to enter and leave the city. The engineering studies in recent decades indicate that this would not have been possible, as the statue would have collapsed under its own weight.

However, the reality is no less impressive. It was built between 292 BC and 280 BC under the direction of Cares of Lindos and was intended to celebrate a victory against the Macedonian attack, although the statue itself was dedicated to the god Helios. At 33 metres, it was the tallest statue built in ancient times and, as if that were not enough, it stood on a platform another 20 metres high. To put these measurements into perspective, Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro is 30 metres high and stands on a platform only 8 metres high.

Its undeniable grandness was possibly also its weakness. An earthquake in 226 BC broke it at the knees, just 54 years after its construction. There were proposals to rebuild it, but these were never carried out, and its ruins remained on the ground as an attraction for more than eight centuries, which is possibly what Heemskerck refers to in the foreground of his drawing. When the Arabs conquered Rhodes in 653 AD, the remains were sold to a merchant, ending the history of this marvel.

The Mausoleum of Halicarnassus

From Mausolus’s grave, his wife drew warmth,

Imploring lifelong devotion to his ashes.

Setting an example she erected a tomb, on which

Artists carved the greatest statues from marble.

Mausolus was satrap of Caria from 377 BC to 353 BC, and upon his death, it was decided to build him a tomb. Up to this point, this was probably what happened to any other ruler who died in those times. But Mausolus, as if he were an Egyptian pharaoh, had already begun planning his tomb before his death. His sister ensured that it was completed in 351 BC. The funerary monument was of such calibre that it not only became one of the Seven Wonders of the World, but also gave its name to the term mausoleum.

The Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, named after its location in the capital of Caria, was 46 metres high and featured sculptures by the best artists of the time. Given its location in Anatolia, it combined Greek, Egyptian and Persian influences, achieving a unique appearance. The tomb remained standing until the 15th century, when it was destroyed by multiple earthquakes. Part of its remains form part of the current Bodrum Castle, rebuilt a few years after the destruction of this marvel.

Bonus: The Colosseum in Rome

To these is added by the poet whose birth Bilbilis boasts (i.e. Martial),

The sacred glory of the imperial amphitheatre:

A structure that mimicked the globe’s round shape,

Hollow, it held the crowds and staged their games.

All of Maarten van Heemskerck’s drawings have a certain aura of fantasy. The fantasy of someone who draws from vague descriptions found in old books and has never had the opportunity to visit those places. All except for the eighth drawing with which he ends his work, the Colosseum in Rome.

Heemskerck did visit the Colosseum in Rome during his lifetime, as shown in one of his self-portraits. He was so fascinated by the building that he did not hesitate to include it in his personal list of wonders of the ancient world. Although on this occasion he did not show the building at its peak, but depicted it in ruins, as he had known it.

Despite being part of Octo Mundi Miracula, the Colosseum in Rome did not make it onto the canonical list of the seven wonders, possibly because it did not appear in any classical source. Even so, without Heemskerck’s trips to Rome and his fascination with the Colosseum, we might never have had this fabulous collection of engravings. And who knows, perhaps a list of wonders of the ancient world would have never been established to serve as a reference for what was once greatness, and of which not even ashes remain.

By popular demand, here’s a button for procrastinating, in case you have plenty of things to do, but you don’t feel like. Each time you click on it, it will take you to a different map from the more than 1,100 in the catalogue.

Give me another map

If you like what you read, don’t hesitate to subscribe to receive an email with each new article that is published.

Subscribe now

In October 2009, Jake Parker created the Inktober initiative. It was a fairly simple idea: to consistently produce one ink drawing every day for 31 days in October so that the practice would help him improve both his skills and his work habits. In just a few years, the initiative grew significantly around the world, with thousands of artists signing up for this challenge every October.

With this idea as inspiration, in 2019 Topi Tjukanov started the #30DayMapChallenge initiative. In it, map creators were invited to publish one of their works each day for 30 days in November. Topi included a few simple rules: the maps must be the work of the person publishing them, the source of the data must be credited1, and no maliciousness. In addition, in an attempt to encourage creativity and avoid repetitive maps, he proposed a specific theme for each of the 30 days. This November marks the seventh edition, with high participation on some major social networks, such as Twitter2, Mastodon, Bluesky and Instagram.

This initiative has helped me discover many data visualization and cartography professionals who are doing wonderful work, such as Terence Teo. Taking advantage of the event, this week I wanted to bring you some authors and some of the maps they have published as part of this initiative over the years. At the end, I will also leave you with a more extensive list of recommendations and links to many maps for you to explore.

Antonia Blankenberg

You can find Antonia on Twitter and LinkedIn, and learn more about her in this short interview with GeoHipster.

In this first map, with the theme of flows, the author represents surface currents, with different colours depending on their intensity.

For this second illustration, with the theme Asia, she uses different resources to simulate a typical map from spy films, despite it being simply a map of Wi-Fi networks in the city of Hong Kong.

This last map by the author, with the theme analogue, depicts the Dublin tram network in 1922. It is a digitisation of an old map3, to give it a modern look.

Perrin Remonté

You can find Perrin on Twitter and Instagram. He also posts all his freelance work on his own website, where you can find some real gems.

In this first map, with the theme atmosphere, the author depicts the average rainfall in each location in Europe. He also adds text to explain some relatively curious patterns, such as the fact that it rains much less in London (600 mm/year) than in Naples (1,000 mm/year).

This second illustration, on the theme of Europe, shows France and its surroundings as they were 20,000 years ago, during the last glacial peak. You can see the permanent ice caps in the Alps and Pyrenees, as well as the land bridges that connected Corsica and Sardinia or Great Britain with continental Europe.

The last map, with the theme of North America, represents the Lewis and Clark expedition of 1804. This expedition was commissioned by Thomas Jefferson after the Louisiana Purchase and was the first by Americans to reach the Pacific Ocean.

Heather Chamberlain

You can find Heather on Twitter and LinkedIn. There is also some information about her on her profile at WorldPop.

In this first map, with the theme South America, the author presents a beautiful representation of the Galápagos Islands. It includes the topographic map of the islands in green and the bathymetric map of the waters surrounding the islands in blue.

This second map, with the theme Africa, shows the date of the last available census in each African country. The information on the map itself is not particularly interesting, but the graphic design is striking. Even welcoming.

Erwan Rivault

You can find Erwan on Twitter and LinkedIn, or in many BBC articles, where he works as a data and map designer.

I think this first map, with the theme Flow, is wonderful. It shows the Greenland ice sheet, with a colour code representing the speed of the ice. This allows us to see the areas where the ice is flowing into the sea (in dark red, at a speed of two kilometres per year) and the areas that remain more static (in white and light blue, at a speed of a few metres per year).

In this second illustration, with the theme Asia, Erwan shows the major rivers of Africa and their watersheds. He uses different colours to highlight the differences between the various watersheds.

I have included this last map, on the theme Analogue, because I find it quite humorous. The author takes the idea of analogue to the extreme, so he had to buy tomatoes of different sizes to represent the differences in production between different European countries.

More authors and more maps

I could go on talking about many of the authors and maps I have come across, but Substack4 is already warning me again. What I am writing is too long for a newsletter that many of you receive by email.

In any case, here is a link to most of the maps that were published in this challenge in 2019, 2020, 2021 and 20225. In addition, here is a list of many other cartographers, data analysts and artists that I have discovered thanks to this initiative, as well as some links to their work and social media. If you have any others that you find interesting and that do not appear here, please let me know:

• Andy Woodruff: Website, Instagram, Mastodon and Twitter.

• Andrew J. Van Leuven: Website, Twitter and LinkedIn.

• Ansgar Wolsing: Twitter and Mastodon.

• Aubrey Steingraber: Twitter and WorldPop.

• Barbara Kent: Instagram and Twitter.

• Benjamin Nowak: Mastodon and Twitter.

• Cédric Vidonne: Mastodon and Twitter.

• Ceren Dolma: Blog and Twitter.

• Christy Heaton: Mastodon and Twitter.

• Doug Greenfield: Mastodon.

• Fedir Gontsa: Mastodon, Twitter, and Behance.

• Gaëlle Sutton: Website and Twitter.

• Helen McKenzie: Website, Instagram, and Twitter.

• Iskar Waluyo: Instagram.

• Jacob L. Macdonald: Website, Mastodon, LinkedIn, and Twitter.

• Jean-Marc Viglino: Website, LinkedIn, and Twitter.

• Kirsten Reilly: Mastodon and Twitter.

• Kurt Menke: Website, Mastodon and Twitter.

• Mapologies: Website, Mastodon, Instagram and Twitter.

• Nesuk Vadym: Twitter.

• Nianhua Liu: LinkedIn and Twitter.

• Nithya Subramanian: Website, LinkedIn, Instagram and Twitter.

• Pao Corrales: Web y Mastodon.

• Peter Atwood: Website and Twitter.

• Phoebe L.: Website, LinkedIn, and Twitter.

• Raj Bhagat P: Mastodon, and Twitter.

• Roberto Aguilar Celis: LinkedIn, and Twitter.

• Robert Vief: Website, BlueSky, and Twitter.

• Stephen Kennedy: Instagram, and Twitter.

• Thiyangt: Mastodon.

• Viz Art: Web, Instagram y Twitter.

• Wanmei Liang: LinkedIn y Twitter.

By popular demand, here’s a button for procrastinating, in case you have plenty of things to do, but you don’t feel like. Each time you click on it, it will take you to a different map from the more than 1,100 in the catalogue.

Give me another map

If you like what you read, don’t hesitate to subscribe to receive an email with each new article that is published.

Subscribe now