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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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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Sweet breakfast seems to be only popular in countries that speak a Romance language.
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While some Romani people refer to themselves as gypsies, it should never be used as a catch-all phrase like the map does, then it's a slur. Romani or Roma would indeed be the appropriate term.
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I'd have thought in the UK it would be more skewed to the middle east these days, go back 100 years, yes black people, but today? I'd have thought as a whole, black people are more accepted?
I did a review of official statistics a few years ago. It went Black>Muslim>Gay>Jewish, with no data for other ethnicities like Travellers or Irish. But within that was several interesting trends. The most severe violence was employed against gay men. Black men faced moderately more discrimination than black women, but Muslim women faced way more discrimination than Muslim men (presumably due to being readily identified by their hijab).
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As a Dane, I believe that the reason why we tend to discriminate against Muslim Arabs is that they feature so high in our crime statistics.
I can't speak for Denmark, but certainly in UK the perception of black people being responsible for more crimes is way off course. Black people actually commit fewer crimes per head of the population than white people in my county. There's a huge difference between crime statistics from the media, and crime statistics from the police
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I think Muslims are discriminated against so much that it isn't immediately apparent to non-Muslims. It is perfectly acceptable for the press and politicians to make remarks about members of the religion and they are always being asked to condemn anything done in the name of Islam which is bad. Would the same people do this to Jewish people? Of course not! That's anti-semitism. It seems we missed the lesson of WW2 atrocities, it wasn't JUST about treating Jewish people better - it was supposed to be to end hatred..
@El Dee: if this chart is not a political one but instead dedicated to the popular/inhabitants believe I can clearly understand why Muslims/Turks clashes so great with the other cultures inhabitants. I as a femal never get so degraded, threatened for my life and got sexually assaulted by any other religious tribe! Just saying. Makes it hard to keep an open world view after reoccurring, not initiated, negative confrontations
Load More Replies... Croatia and Serbia hate each other. Bosnia hates Serbia except its autonomous region of Srpska which hates Bosnia. Albania hates serbia. Slovenia is chill kind of. Macedonia I have no clue. Montenegro I don't know.
I don't know the exact history of Balkan, but is the Srebrenica massacre the main reason for the Bosniaks' hatred?
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Came here to write this. We have literally maybe 100 muslims in Slovakia. People who think they hate muslims never saw one. But they hate roma people for personal experience…
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For most countries it's based on violent crimes (France: Charlie Hebdo attack; beheading of a teacher - Germany: Attack on the Breitscheidplatz; massive sexual harassment on New years eve 2016 - to name a few of the many incidents). People simply lost trust in muslim/arabian refugees
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Turkey surprised me. I would think the common religion would make relations better.
Gypsy is a difficult one. Romany Gypsy is an accepted definition, including amongst the Roma community but Gypsy can still be used as an insult. Local names maybe less offensive...traveller in UK gitanos in Spain.
mixes to many aspects. discrimination by sexuality, heritage, nation, colour and even accent are not comparable. I'd rather would like see a couple of maps here, one for every type of discrimination.
I wonder why Spain hates Moroccans specifically? Obviously there’s no excuse for discrimination but I do wonder why
I have seen quite a bit of islamophobia in my area of the UK but there is a lot more racism against black people around london and other areas so it’s understandable. Discrimination is wrong whoever it’s against though please be nice people.
Muslims, gays, black people, Turks, gypsies... Haters gonna hate. Love y'all x
I think... this map is kinda crazy in how "specific" it is. So many of these... overlap and.... it just breaks my brain, sorry. The "gay people" thing I just think is funny, even though I know it's not on the street level. I just... I dunno where to start?! I thought my country (US) was bad... and I knew there were problems in Europe.. but jesus H. Don't get me wrong.. if you migrate, and I don't use "immigrate" anymore because, come on, our world is f*cked, follow the laws of the place you settle in, ADAPT. I'm laid back and easy going, but a good way to piss me off is to pick on or discriminate. I'm not so nice then.
Okay I’m black and Irish and I can confirm this is false. I bet these people are lumping us in with racist British twits
Maybe because Portuguese are 25% of Luxembourg's population and they have the low income jobs. I expected gypsies to be the most discrinated people in Portugal.
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..trans are not even mentioned they don't even exist ! I'm pretty sure being committed to a mental hospital for straight conversion therapy IS discrimination😡
This flies in the face of the map showing who would be comfortable with a daughter marrying a black man.
Not really. It's the most discriminated against group they're asking for, that group could be discriminated against by only 2% of the population, but if every other group is only discriminated against by 1% then it's the most discriminated group but you'd still get a high percentage on who would be fine with their daughter marrying a black man.
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You need to update the UK to ‘absolutely anyone who sounds a bit foreign’
This map is incorrect about Sweden. The most discriminated group in Sweden are white males. We get hated on in every media outlet and blamed for everything that is wrong in the entire world and discriminated against in the workplaces. White males in Sweden are treated like the jews in Germany in the 30's. I myself have been a victim of our regimes crimes against the humanity.
White males are not treated like jews in Germany in the 30's in Sweden. That's offensive. It's just that women people started to stand up for themselves even more from the begining of #metoo. Just like everywhere, white men here are the most privileged. I get that it can be really uncomfortable for white males now. They have it tough now, but jews, women, people of colour, queer people etc. have had it tough and been oppressed by white males for centuries and still are. Of course you shouldn't go after innocent people, but if someone treat you really bad they deserve to be called out in some way.
Load More Replies... Actually Christians and Jews are more discriminated against according to statistics. You hear more about islamophobia but its not fact.
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I think the countries colored black have it RIGHT YO! And I'm American!
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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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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
