We all have geography lessons in school. And while we learn many interesting things about the maps and geography in them, there's always room for improvement.
So, today, let's look at these interesting maps of Europe that we picked and found online. After all, there's no wrong time to learn something new. And who knows, maybe you'll end up using these facts somewhere (maybe a trivia night?), unlike some things you were taught at school.
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Mer..credi! in France because you start to say Merde! and realize there are kids around ;-))
This one is both fascinating and quite scary. The relatively mild climate in the British Isles is, as I understand it, heavily reliant on the Gulf Stream. If that gets messed up because of climate change, we're fűcked!
Maps are leading us in nearly every step of our way. They are reachable to everyone - just a few presses and you can see Google or Apple Maps. But that wasn’t always the case.
The history of maps can be traced as far back as 5000 years ago. The first-ever maps were used to depict small areas in pictures. And there was no set of rules on how everything should be drawn, which made maps quite inaccurate.
Later, the map-making art was taken over by the Greeks and Romans. The most notable works of this mapping period were those of Claudius Ptolemaeus. He was a geographer, mathematician, and astronomer, who came up with longitude and latitude lines. And, well, that revolutionized European geographic thinking.
Ha, jokes on switzerland, the biggest, most popular and most expensive city isn't even the capital.
Milton Jones: why did I run up to doorbells and ring them, then run away? Just for the buzz...
Then, during the middle ages, there wasn’t much progress in the map-making scene. Most of the maps that were produced during this time were of monasteries, which were influenced by religious devotion. They were heavily decorated with angels and imaginary monsters.
However, the Islamic world made some progress in the map-making area. The most notable instance is of Al-Idrisi, an Arab scholar who produced numerous world maps and geography books that heavily influenced this scientific field.
Iceland seems to have drifted into the Bay of Biscay! And a lot more people watch rugby than play in the UK - unless you include those who are forced to play it at school.
Apparently Iceland was inspired by that famous island Alaska.
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Well assuming they mean Gaelic football (the GAA covers hurling etc too), then by that standard so is rugby.
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B******t. Speedway in Poland? We got a strong league but it's not too much popular
I'd say handball was also the most popular besides football in Romania, too.
I love how it's basketball in so many countries. It's crazy how good many of the European national teams are, despite having such relatively small populations.
Totally wrong for the Netherlands. We ride bike a LOT (we have more bikes than ppl) and I think the most popular sport is fitness/ gym. I don't even know anyone who plays hockey.
Mmm that must the winning method: put a bunch of cyclists in hockey field and they'll become world champions.
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So wrong for Belgium. The only ones engaging in field hockey over here are posh people living in one of the 'richer' towns which were flooded by the rich Dutch, and the local posh want to fit in.
How in the world does hiking not apply to Switzerland as well? We're a people of obssessed hikers (well, not me; I loathe hiking)
Recently I read that the three most popular sports here in France is football, tennis, and horse riding. I havens seen many tennis courts around where I live, but even the smallest village have a rugby field here in the south west. Maybe they play a lot of tennis up north.
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I guess Iceland doesn't want to be Iceland anymore so they moved to a warmer climate :')
Do Europeans ever play American football? Like obviously it didn't make it to second place but I'm curious if it's played at all, anywhere in Europe.
I've heard of one club in Danmark, but it is not popular, rugby seems to far more widely played.
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Skiing is horribly expensive for average Turkish people. It's not even popular in the rich.
Ice hockey in Ukraine, seriously? It was correct about 50 years ago, not anymore. With 1½ lame teams in the country there are no even role models today.
I can’t imagine this to be correct. The sport after football in Holland sure should be cycling…….
Rugby can't be right for the UK. Seems it's not limited to team sports so what about cycling or running? Or is this only about men?
After the Middle Ages, the invention of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg pushed the monasteries out of the dominance of map production. Also, the printing process becoming more available resulted in the growth of major publishing houses. And they produced maps that were accessible to everyone, no matter their financial status.
Even more, improvements in mapping were brought about by the accessibility of public learning and the thirst for knowledge. Increasingly, maps started having more colors showcasing various aspects of the presented place.
Also, in the late 1700s, thematic maps started showing up; for example, those showing the spread of certain illnesses or the extent of a flood.
Now, the maps on our phones are made by using satellite systems and surveying techniques. With these tools, cartographers can measure everything with precision, which was never achievable before. And due to their precision, maps have become an irreplaceable aspect of nearly everyone’s life.
Did you learn something new from these maps? Share your discoveries with us in the comments!
Oh Dear, if this all goes tits up, I'm pretty sure Russia will go down the pan - so then it's goodbye Belarus and Serbia.
Fun short story. Company that outsourced to Switzerland wanted to enforce their policy to have at best 50% black workers, and then got very surprised and confused why this wasn't feasibly possible
For my country, yes ; for the cretins that run my country, no ; those people I'd rather put them in a hole in the ground and just fill it in whilst they're alive. Wars are not started by the people of a country, they are started by upstarts, despots and chancers using those people to fulfill their own deluded ambitions - think Putin and Netenyahu at the moment ; they won't win and people on both sides of their particular countries will suffer because of those two idiots unachievable delusions.
Depends on your definition of "speaks". UK schools teach foreign languages (which and whether it was compulsory varies over the years). However, they start late and are not very advanced by the time they finish. I did both French (5 years) and German (2 years) and I speak neither with any fluency.
Note: this post originally had 42 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.
Interesting maps.. but none of this stuff is really important for school
There are so many facts wrong in this article that I would suggest deleting the entire thing, rather than trying to fix every mistake
I think this is per household, not per adult. Oops, I meant to comment on the last post, not general.
Wondering when those map creators will realize, that Turkey and Russia are Asian countries, not European. Far more than 50%, even more than 70% of their territories are on the Asian continent. So clearly not European.
Russia is both Turkey and can't make its mind up. Not everything depends on an arbitrary line on a map or someone's definition of a continent.
Load More Replies... Interesting maps.. but none of this stuff is really important for school
There are so many facts wrong in this article that I would suggest deleting the entire thing, rather than trying to fix every mistake
I think this is per household, not per adult. Oops, I meant to comment on the last post, not general.
Wondering when those map creators will realize, that Turkey and Russia are Asian countries, not European. Far more than 50%, even more than 70% of their territories are on the Asian continent. So clearly not European.
Russia is both Turkey and can't make its mind up. Not everything depends on an arbitrary line on a map or someone's definition of a continent.
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