30 Unusual Maps That Might Change How You See The World, As Shared On This Instagram Account
Interview With Artist
You’d be surprised how many map enthusiasts there are, if you’re not already one of them. And to those who think that cartography is a legacy from an ancient world, let me tell you, it’s exactly the opposite.
Think of it as a mode of information telling, quite like story-telling, but with its own subtle rules and features. Today, maps can tell us all kinds of miscellaneous things you had no clue existed and the “Lover Of Geography” Instagram page is a perfect online source for that. Followed by 58.3k followers, the page is dedicated to sharing “high quality posts about interesting topics.” They also promise “you won't get bored here,” and they deliver.
Below we collected some of the most entertaining entries from the page, so scroll down and upvote your favorites as you go. After you’re done, make sure to check out our previous posts with unusual maps that may change how you see the world here, here and here.
This post may include affiliate links.
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To find out more about the creator behind the Lover Of Geography Instagram page, Bored Panda reached out to 20-year-old content creator from the Netherlands Melih Orkun Köksal, also known by his Instagram handle @melykoksal. Melih told us that he started this page in December 2019 when he was only 17 years old. “I currently study Earth Sciences at the College of Rotterdam. Other than geography my hobbies are going to the gym and hanging out with friends, not very different from a normal 20-year-old,” he said.
When asked about his interest in cartography, Melih told us that this fascination began in his childhood. “As a little kid as young as 5 years old, I always had a little bit of passion for world maps or countries. I had a huge world map in my room. Every day when I came back home from school I kept staring at the world map in my room because of how fascinating it was to me while most other kids just wouldn't care. I was playing games with myself trying to find all the countries and cities on the map. Or I played geography games on my PC after school.”
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In 1672 The Dutch crowds did what crowds do best, namely lose all semblance of sense or sanity. The prime minister of the country was stripped naked, mutilated, and according to some reports, had their livers removed and eaten by the crowds. “C’est la vie, c’est la guerre,” as the French say.
Moreover, the creator of the Lover Of Geography page recounted that he always wanted to know where the countries are located as a child. “I often asked my parents questions like 'Dad, where is this country located' because I was simply so interested in locations. My parents would notice this weird obsession and in a matter of time, when I was 6 years old, I knew all countries and their capital cities,” he said. Throughout his childhood, Melih said, his knowledge of maps grew “so much to the point that teachers in elementary school or my own parents had to ask me for extra information when we were going on vacation to a different country. Kids in school I was asked me to help them with their geography assignments.”
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That's not too bad. I can imagine a survey amongst us Britishers would show a similar result.
With only 10 seconds that's pretty good. I could easily understand someone hitting Belarus in their rush to answer and I can give benefit of the doubt to any Russian border countries in a panic, but the doughnut that hit Germany...
I'm more concerned about how many hit Turkey, tbh. At least only one hit germany...
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Would be interesting to know if the map had the country outlines/borders on. It’s a lot harder to accurately place countries without borders.
To be fair, I’m a European living in the US and I don’t think I’d do that much better if someone asked me to point out let’s say Idaho
I wanna see the map where Europeans are asked to identify a certain US state in 10 seconds, lol
I know that Florida is the w**g, but that’s the only one I know with any certainty.
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Germany, Estonia, Serbia: 1 Czechia, Bulgaria: 2 Slovakia: 3 Hungary, Moldova: 4 Latvia: 6 Russia: 9 Lithuania: 10 Romania: 15 Poland: 30 Turkey: 37 Belarus: 40 Ukraine: All the rest
Maybe one day Russia will become part of Ukraine. Let’s hope! 🤞🏻
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In my global studies high school class, the teacher asked one of the young ladies that was being rude to come up to the large map at the front of the room. She did so. He then asked her to point to China. She was not able to do so, despite the map being clearly labeled.
That one guy who put germany i mean do they not know where burgers come from? its hamburg in germany and they shortened it to burgers because it has nothing to do with ham
as the annexion of the krim was already covered pretty well in the media, and the krim is also pretty easy to find on a map, it is just sad so many dots have been placed awkwardly wrong.
We learn geography when a war occurs in that country which involves us.
We learn geography when a war occurs in that country and involves us.
This post made me realize that my life was a lie I learned that we were neighbors with Russia but we aren't even close to Russia
Meh, I've met Americans who had a hard time finding their own state on a map. They get a pass for this.
I think this is more of an issue of familiarity. In the states we grow up looking at our country and learning all the states. I imagine in Europe they do the same with all of Europe. At a glance it's a similar amount of countries vs states, and from what I've seen on BP people from Europe may know where the more famous states/cities are, but can probably only get close if asked to name a state they never heard much of until a big incident brought it to the news
lol there a YouTube vid of Americans trying to name different countries just...lol
That is soooo much better than I expected my fellow countrymen to do, you must have went to a college campus to ask this question, I mean not a great college but like one of our southern ones.
Let the Ukrainians attempt to label Arkansas or Utah or New Hampshire...
There is a big difference between a country and a state of a country. Sadly your comment is a great example for the ignorance of too much US-Americans all over the internet
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Well it looks like the slim majority got it right. I'd like to see what happens if you use a map of the world instead of just Europe.
We had a tv program in the Netherlands about 20 years ago and people on holiday had to point on a map where they were (just the country). So many people had no idea where they were. It was Dutch people on holiday in Europe.
Nevada is not an individual country. 90% of Europeans could point to the USA on a map. Be less dumb.
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It's actually not too bad. I expected a lot worse. I'm an American and honestly I wouldn't have been able to decide which was Ukraine and which was Belarus given 10 seconds.
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Years later, when Melih was 16 or 17, he saw all these mappers on Instagram and he thought he could do that too, but better. So he wanted a page to share his “own map style and not just stolen maps from Reddit. I wanted to entertain people and educate them at the same time by making maps more fun.”
Recently, Melih has noticed maps popping up everywhere online since 2016. He believes that now younger folks are being targeted with cartography.“I am trying to select maps people will look at without just scrolling. It needs to be interesting and fun but it also needs to be based on reliable sources. So I try to share maps with the combination of these 2 things, the maps that are fun and come from reliable sources.”
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What is the secret the netherlands hold when it comes to good sleep?
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Hungary is not absolutely correct. Yet. We, Hungarians think that Viktor Orban actually supports Putin, that's why he acts like that, but he still wants to get money from EU. We hope this will change in 2 days finally, because Hungarian people stand with Ukraine <3
Melih also added that sometimes he uses hot topics to gain more audience, “For example, during the World Cup, I made more football-related posts.”When asked whether he ever experiments with the design and style of his maps, Melih said that he indeed has done multiple experiments with the design but he prefers to stick with one style. “So my page will be more recognizable as if it's my own brand,” he said and added that “I tend to go for a minimalist look because it's easier to look at and understand what's going on on the map.”
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Pardon me but i had to google search what is Hentai, now I regret it. Dont do it if you are at office or a public place.
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Is it really the flag of USA? I would like to know who they get this results
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Now do one comparing those figures with the average salary and see the map change. *Cries in Spain*
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I think the countries colored black have it RIGHT YO! And I'm American!
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What does that even mean? France is named that way because it was the"land of the Franks". Franks were the tribes that were there so long ago.
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I take it that this is being actively spoken in conversation, rather than learnt. Most Brits will have learnt a second language to some degree at school, and for a long time that was predominantly French, but we also learn German, Spanish and Mandarin, we just don't tend to use them!
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Technically, all humans, men and women, have hair follicles over almost their entire body - the whole world should be red 😉
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I feel many of those maps are inaccurate or partial. It would be much better with their sources.
same. Most of these are based on polls on reddit. 5 people reply - "condiment of choice with fries". Yeah sure, those are not even sold together with fries, but whatevah.
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Aotearoa doesn't appear on many, and where it's present it's in the wrong place. Not sure of this geographer...
I skip reading through after couple of maps since it seems inaccurate or false
I feel many of those maps are inaccurate or partial. It would be much better with their sources.
same. Most of these are based on polls on reddit. 5 people reply - "condiment of choice with fries". Yeah sure, those are not even sold together with fries, but whatevah.
Load More Replies... Aotearoa doesn't appear on many, and where it's present it's in the wrong place. Not sure of this geographer...
I skip reading through after couple of maps since it seems inaccurate or false
