Questions tagged [maps]
For questions relating to maps, incl. specific maps, how these were made, and their purpose.
73 questions
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Why are the roads in the Fucino Plateau misaligned by 1.2 degrees compared to the cardinal directions?
The Fucino Plateau, in central Italy, is a wide plain arising from the drainage of the Fucino Lake in the late 1800s.
Looking at it in google maps, its fields are separated by roads set in a precise ...
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When did we start utilizing squiggles/waves to demonstrate where water is?
I have been trying to research the history of cartographic maps symbols.
However, I have been struggling to find when symbols for bodies of water came about.
Where/When did we start utilizing ...
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What flag had a black cross blue field 1589?
What flag is blue background and black cross flags 1589?
Used by Giovanni Batista Boazio
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Map of Canada from about 1912? Or earlier?
I saw this map in a youtube video that was mainly about the life of a German inventor who relocated to Canada in 1912. That seems to hint that this is how a map of Canada looked at that time. It is ...
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Is there any documented evidence that these three North American cities were named due to the locations of their namesakes?
Two years ago, I was studying an online atlas of the world and I happened to notice that there are three cities located in North America which have a geographical similarity with three cities located ...
user50539
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Was Goryeo part of the Mongol empire?
So I came to America from Korea a while ago and I decided to study a bit of history (because who doesn't like history?).
While doing so, it kind of confused me that the extent of the Mongol empire ...
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Where can I find a detailed map of the Landgraviate of Hesse-Rotenburg as it existed in 1648?
Where online can I find a map of the Landgraviate of Hesse-Rotenburg (aka the 'Rotenburger Quart') as it existed between 1648 (ie, after the Peace of Westphalia) and 1658 (when Hermann IV von Hessen-...
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Roman Empire Netflix Map
Netflix's recent series, called "Roman Empire", has this miniature for the Portuguese language:
We can recognise this as a map of the Roman Empire, especially during the early Principate ...
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Who is 'Ebinichibel' mentioned in the Borgia Map?
Wikipedia:BorgiaMap page gives this detail,
The Borgia map includes a legend referring to Ebinichibel, who is described as "the Saracen Ethiopian king with his dog-headed people".
Is this ...
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Where is this map of Scandinavia (Nicolaus Germanus, 1467)
Does anybody recognise this map?
Is there a better version online?
Update: the map was apparently printed in colour, and one version might be in Warsaw. Could also be available online, but have not ...
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Did 15th century Europeans not know about south-east Asia?
Columbus headed west across the Atlantic expecting to reach India, and initially thought that he had landed there.
His latitude for India was correct, but even if his estimates of distance and the ...
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Do maps dating back to 1489/90 show Ascension and St Helena even though these islands were supposedly only discovered in 1501 and 1502 respectively?
The 1504 Vesconte Maggiolo Map appears to be the first map to name and accurately locate the islands of St Helena and Ascension as single isloated islands.
Ascension was shown in a similar location ...
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Map of/Measure of conflicted areas throughout history [closed]
I am looking for a map which would give an indication of how much territorial conflict there was in a given area. One way I imagined one could do it is to look at how territorial states (in the period ...
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Where can I find a map or list of 19th century European watermills?
I am looking for a map or list of 19. century watermills.
I have found this Hungarian Wikipedia page, which contains many historical watermills, but only within the current or historic territory of ...
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Are there visualisations of the Kerma state along with other Nile Valley civilizations?
Wikipedia describes the Kerma state as existing contemporaneously with Middle Kingdom Egypt, from approx 2500 BC to 1500 BC. Yet, the article on the Kerma doesn't illustrate the Kermanese (?) sphere ...
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When did the Portuguese decide to extend their West African exploration to finding a sea passage to India?
In 1421, when the Portuguese began the southwards exploration of the West African coast under Prince Henry the Navigator, their primary aim (there were several) was to find the source of wealthy goods ...
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When the Portuguese began the exploration of the West African Coast, did they believe the Indian Ocean was an enclosed sea?
The Ptolemy map shows the Indian Ocean as an enclosed sea separated from the Atlantic by land extending from Africa to Malaya. Therefore, it suggests it is impossible to reach the Indian Ocean from ...
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Why do some 17th and 18th century maps depict Ottoman sanjaks north of the Danube in Wallachia?
Note: I am editing this question constantly, because after posting it I have realized that there are more maps involving the same description, beside Homann's of 1720. (That doesn't mean that they are ...
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Have there been any lawsuits over gerrymandering outside the United States?
In countries that use first-past-the-post legislative elections, drawing district maps that have political effects is called Gerrymandering. It is famously seen as shameless but nearly impossible to ...
user18968
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How to build historical maps?
Is there an online tool that allows one to create a historical map given a time period and region/country of interest? I have found this question, What are good online sources for historical maps?, ...
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What was the purpose of each project site during the Manhattan Project?
I'm looking for an answer as to what the purpose of each project site was during the Manhattan Project. The following image illustrates (but only includes some of the sites) where each site was ...
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What is the logic for the map maker classifying the map this way, specifically in Canada?
I recently came across the map displayed above. It is a map showing the spread of totalitarian and authoritarian governments right before WWII. The countries that are black are totalitarian ...
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How much (area) territory did Chinese dynasties control?
I am looking for the area of the territories controlled by the different Chinese dynasties since Zhou all the way to the Qing. There are maps available of the different territories but I haven't found ...
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What were the divisions of the city of Paris between the 12th and 13th centuries?
What were the divisions (neighborhoods/districts) of the city of Paris during the medieval period? I know there is a division between left and right bank and Ilé de la cité, but I believe there should ...
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Is there a population density map of pre-Columbian South America?
I have found such maps for North America, e.g. this one:
But never for the southern continent. The goal is a broad overview. How many Lokono were there, compared to the Mapuche (and the Cree for that ...
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When did inadequate or inaccurate maps produce important historical consequences?
For example, Christopher Columbus' sense of place in the New World was perhaps shaped by a c. 1491 map made by Henricus Martellus:
(From: Did This Map Guide Columbus?)
I'm interested in more ...
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Where can I find maps and other historical resources / references of Calcutta / Kolkata in the Victorian era?
I am doing some historical research on a project and need some maps, references on Calcutta in the Victorian Era, somewhere between the 1850's and 60's. Does anyone know some good sites / books where ...
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Is there any resource for showing world territories at different years?
I teaching a secondary class about a region where the borders were constantly shifting, government constantly changing hands, people within the area changing nationality several times, etc. which is ...
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Did imperialist propaganda inflate map size?
I'm fairly certain I've seen this in the past and I highly doubt I'm making this up - I'm not sure whether it was of the British Empire or Japan's or maybe even some other nation - but I'm fairly ...
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Examples of ancient maps that gave names based on a cardinal direction
Years ago I read that civilizations had maps like that of the Herodotus, who was an ancient Greek historian. Said maps named lands or peoples according to cardinal directions, but without referring to ...
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What is the earliest mention of an estimate of 71% water (or 70.8%) / 29% land (or 29.2%)?
According to the U.S. Geological Survey's article How much water is there on, in, and above the Earth?,
About 71 percent of the Earth's surface is water-covered
Wikipedia's Earth article also ...
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Where to get historical Finland railways map for 1939 year?
Where to get Finland railways map for 1939 year ?
Just want to compare logistics possibilities during Winter War.
It is map of USSR:
http://soldat.ru/files/f/00000583.jpg
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How old is Philippe Buache's map of New Discoveries?
(See 6MB high-resolution version.)
The University of Hawai'i at Manoa owns a copy of this map of the Pacific by Phillippe Buache. Its library record gives the date "Circa 1750"; I wonder if we can be ...
user18968
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When was the use of detailed maps for military campaigns widely adopted?
I remember definitively, they were there during the Napoleonic wars. Napoleon himself was a part of one Bureau of Topography for a while.
An auxiliary question, how did they ever get to survey lands ...
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Have map projections and distortions ever affected treaties?
Has there ever been a case of an unfair treaty occur anytime through history due to use of biased map projections, either accidentally or deliberately?
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Where was Canterbury College (Oxford) located?
I hope this is on-topic. I am reading about former Oxford University colleges. For many their historic location in the city is well documented. I just came across one however which is unclear. It is ...
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Where can I find a world map from the Victorian period?
I'm looking for a (preferably open-source) decently quality political map of the world from around 1890 (1885-1900 would be usable for what I want). I don't have a lot of experience looking for maps ...
user32978
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What are these items in this 16th century plan of an English town?
This plan or picture map of Great Yarmouth is from the reign of Elizabeth I (1558-1603). According to the Norfolk Record Office (pdf),
It shows the town’s defences at the time of the Spanish Armada ...
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Can the Cassini maps of France be found online?
I am looking for online versions of the Cassini maps (i.e. "the first general maps of the territory using a measuring apparatus were made by the Cassini family during the 18th century" from https://en....
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How were ethnographic maps in the 19th century made?
Ethnographic maps are visual representations of the ethnic make up of particular regions. Usually multicultural regions which are controlled by an empire.
Here are some examples of ethnographic maps:...
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Who was the first Renaissance cartographer to include rich content in their maps that went beyond spatial points, borders, and location names?
In other words, which Renaissance cartographer was the first to really enrich their maps with imagery or icons that indicated other attributes about the locations they were mapping, or the people who ...
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Can anyone explain why the Scottish flag on this map from 1504 has a red cross on a white background?
The section of the map below is from a nautical chart by the Portuguese cartographer Pedro Reinel (c.1462 – c.1542). On it, Scotland is shown with a red St. Andrew's Cross on a white background.
Upon ...
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What was the extent of Japanese control after the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs and before surrender?
What was the extent of Japanese control after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki? I am talking about before their surrender. A map would be extremely preferred for better understanding.
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Where can I find clean maps of colonial America?
I have been trying to find maps of North America with the various territories, but the closest I can find are actual maps made from that time.
Where can I find clean, modern (projection) maps of ...
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Which period is this game map supposed to represent? [closed]
I have gotten my hands on a handmade Diplomacy variant, however for the life of me I can't figure out which period it is supposed to represent. Of course the author had to take liberties when ...
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What is the earliest map of Washington, D.C.?
What is the earliest official map of Washington, D.C. and where can it be found in the digital form and highest possible resolution? Googling didn't yield a credible answer.
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Naming of (strategic) hills on a map as numbers (example Hill 60)
I'm a native to the Ypres region. Here we still have hills retaining their names given during WW1: Hill 60, Hill 62, Hill 41,...
I did some research on the naming of the hills. And during my research ...
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What are the height units of contours on this WW2 topographic map?
What are the units seen on the contours and spot heights of this WW2 topographic map? I'm not sure if the map is of Russian or German origin: I've seen the same style and map symbols on Russian army ...
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When would the Japanese have been able to recognize their archipelago?
After watching Bill Wurtz's History of Japan video, it got me wondering.
At 4:38, it brings up the Dutch bringing geography to Japan (obviously, this is a humorous video, so I'm sure this is ...
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Has Mohenjo-daro been reconstructed?
What is the extent of current knowledge on the physical structure of the city of Mohenjo Daro?
Have all possible roads and buildings (possibly in 3D) been reconstructed? Do we completely know the ...
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