“Countries Where It Has Never Snowed”: 50 Fascinating New Maps That Might Teach You Something New About Our World
InterviewI’m the map, I’m the map, I’m the map, I’m the map. I’m the map!
I remember watching countless episodes of Dora the Explorer as a child, singing the above song and wishing I had a map companion of my own to take me on many journeys. And while I may not be able to provide you with a treasure map to find gold in your backyard, the list we’ve got for all you pandas down below is certainly full of fascinating maps that'll teach you more about the world. Covering everything from religion to politics to the word used for coffee in various countries, these pics pulled from this map-happy subreddit are full of fun facts, with some stunning visuals sprinkled in as well.
Be sure to upvote the maps that you find most fascinating or that you would like to see hanging up on your walls, and let us know in the comments what the best map you’ve ever seen was. Keep reading to also find interviews we were lucky enough to receive from the creator of this subreddit, land surveyor Patrick McGranaghan, and man behind Atlas Altera, Telamon Tabulicus. Then if you’re interested in checking out Bored Panda's last article featuring this fascinating and educational subreddit, look no further than right here.
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The Scottish Highlands, The Appalachians, And The Atlas Are The Same Mountain Range, Once Connected As The Central Pangean Mountains
Excellent map. And accurate. The Manhattan schist in Central Park was formed during this event, about 450 million years ago.
This map-obsessed subreddit was created in 2011, and has amassed an astonishing 2 million followers since then. Clearly, there are plenty of people out there interested in maps, so we reached out to its creator, Patrick McGranaghan on Reddit to hear what inspired him to start this extremely successful page in the first place. "The sub was inspired by my love of geography," he told Bored Panda. "I traveled a lot as a kid, and the power of maps was imprinted on me at an early age. I think a lot of people have similar experiences, and that's been the impetus for the growth of the sub."
We also asked Patrick why he thinks people love maps so much. "People love data visualization, and maps are an especially potent form of data visualization," he explained. "I think a lot of the growth of the sub is from Reddit's infrastructure. Reddit can host huge files with high-resolution. You can post huge maps here and zoom in on them and see tiny details. Recently there has been a shift to mobile Reddit. Now people can quickly see and share content and maps can go viral."
Shark With Gps Paints A Shark On The Map
This Map Was Drawn By Turkish Sailor/Cartographer Piri Reis In 1513
We were also curious what types of maps Patrick particularly loves being shared in the group. "There are many kinds of maps that I like, but I especially like pictorial or panoramic maps," he told Bored Panda. He provided links to two of his favorites, including one beautiful depiction of Yosemite National Park in the United States and another brightly colored map of St. Petersburg, Russia, in 1913.
We also asked Patrick if he would be interested in sharing a little bit of what he has learned from running this subreddit. "I've definitely learned a lot about maps from running this sub," he shared. "It has enabled me to meet and connect with map lovers all over the world. On a recent trip to Romania, I got a VIP tour of a map museum in Bucharest because of my social media presence. Running this subreddit has helped me discover peoples and regions that I only had a faint idea about."
The Incredible Journey Of An Arctic Fox Who Walked From Norway To Canada In 2018
The True Size Of Africa
Imagine What Would Happen If Some Mexican President Wanted To Restore The Country's Original Borders, Before The American Invasion
Because this map-obsessed subreddit focuses on all sorts of different maps, we thought it would be fascinating to reach out to a map expert who primarily focuses on building a fictional map. We spoke to Telamon Tabulicus, creator of Atlas Altera, to hear a little more about his project and what inspired him to create it. “Atlas Altera is a creative worldbuilding exercise where more than 1000 nations make it onto the world map,” Telamon told Bored Panda. “This work comes from a love of the uniqueness of place and the need to share that love through maps. It is a celebration of geography, history, and languages, as well as all the marvels that lie in us... Us in all our own ways.”
“I started this project because I think we live in an uninspired world, where we've traded in millennia of human complexity and ingenuity for technological idolatry,” he shared. “Technological know-how is great, but it shouldn't replace cultural wisdom and knowledge. Just as we're losing biodiversity, we are losing another layer of what makes our world rich. We're losing cultural diversity too.”
A 16th Century Map Of Nicosia, Cyprus And The City From Above Today
This “Where Are You From” Map At The Aurora Museum In Reykjavík Iceland
My European Hand Drawn Line Art Fantasy Style Map
“For me, world maps and place-based descriptions/narratives hold imaginary possibilities that produce real effects,” Telamon told Bored Panda. “The project is a creative attempt at creating a backdrop that can draw people back to a world they took for granted or forsook, and rediscover real wonders and a cultural world worth cherishing.”
Telamon explained that when building this alternate map, his “trick is to pick up plot lines, especially ones that have been abandoned in our history”. “Vile things can and do still happen in the history of Altera, but it's just that each time the winners win, the losers lose less, so that by contemporary times, there is a more diverse and culturally vibrant world... Gone are the days of overt empire-building and erasure, although conflict can obviously still simmer in new ways… I did not create a utopia, but a syntopia, a world where difference is the main defining factor.”
This Is How A Globe For The Blind Looks Like!
States Where It’s Perfectly Legal For A Landlord To Evict A Tenant For Simply Being Gay Or Transgender
Japanese Stereotypes Of Europe
Italy=Mafia !! pretty ironic coming from Japan : "The Yakuza are still very active, and although Yakuza membership has declined since the implementation of the Anti-Boryokudan Act in 1992, there are still approximately 12,300 active Yakuza members in Japan as of 2021. The Yakuza does not consist of just one group, rather there are many different syndicate groups that together form one of the largest organized crime groups in the world."
They aren't specifying whether the mafia is a positive, or negative.
Load More Replies...I love the "bad food" England A very common and famous stereotype. My favorite joke about English cuisine is that they invaded all those other countries for spices and then decided they didn't like any of them.
I think it's quite a funny belief (as an English person), but I also think it's quite inaccurate. England is highly multicultural and so there's food from almost every country in the world here. Even in my tiny town there's food from every continent (except Antarctica of course)
Load More Replies...I have many Latvian friends, and have only just realised I have never seen them eat potatoes in any form. Mind blown. 🤯
Meanwhile in Lithuania, I had a dinner where they served nothing but potatoes in various forms. They really love potatoes there.
Load More Replies...Dracula is strictly Transylvania (Western Romania) and completely inaccurate. The guy who people were calling "Dracul" (the devil) had nothing to do with Transylvania.
Load More Replies...At least they were included. Slovakia was not even considered on the map.
Load More Replies...russians with mongols declair war against Japan long time ago and russians/mongols win, so Japs wanna be just polite.
Load More Replies...who said we cannot eat potatoes 😭 we eat them a lot actually (actually depending on the person but yk)
I can't understand this either! Being a former neighbour, I should have heard about it!
Load More Replies...Yes, that's true with Germany, but that it comes from the Japanese is really tough. The Japanese were allies of the Germans in World War II so that they could spread their racist worldview further.
I feel for you. That's just unnecessarily cruel. Where does that even come from?
Load More Replies...I think Serbia being good at tennis is down to one man - and there's a Swiss bloke and a Spaniard who might want a word...
Japanese are absolutely wrong about Latvia. Latvia is country, where potatoes are eaten a lot. It's called - second bred!
Latvian here -- we totally can, and do, eat potatoes. Potato pancakes, potatoes in dill and sour cream...
Probably better informed than Europeans would be on Japan. Scotland wanting Independence very accurate!
My stereotypes would be "polite but racist, killed a lot of people and whales, eat raw food and live on a tiny island crammed in tiny rooms". Not overly flattering, either, I guess ;-)
Load More Replies..." stereotype : a standardized mental picture that is held in common by members of a group and that represents an oversimplified opinion, prejudiced attitude, or uncritical judgment . A stereotype is a preconceived notion, especially about a group of people. Many stereotypes are racist, sexist, or homophobic ."
In the city where I live we have the largest community of Japanese people outside Japan. We even have a Japanese / Asian district with restaurants, shops, supermarkets.
Load More Replies...As an Italian living in UK is a bit sad how many times someone is just talking about mafia in any possible way with me, out of context. I had an American customer at work once who started to say "Italia, mafia!" With the classic hand gestures. I asked him if that morning he went to shoot a couple of kids in a school and got really pissed saying that was disrespectful.
Load More Replies...Would love to see the opposite: what stereotypes do European countries have about Japan ;-)
Why is Turkey on this? Only a tiny part of it is in Europe, the rest is in Asia.
Ooof I was expecting smelly people for France so I'll take it. Still I'm surprised Japanese people know about Moldovan wine
"According to historians, the poor working-class didn’t have access to a decent water supply until the late 19th century, much later than some other countries such as Britain and the US. At that time, Paris, like many other European cities, had very little indoor plumbing facilities. Even after the war ended and the plumbing situation improved, the cliché remained and was even fed by British taboids in the 1990s. At that time, articles were written addressing how the French bathed less and used less soap than the Brits after a survey came out in 1998. It said that each French person used 600g of toilet soap each year compared to 1.4kg for a Briton. But what was not mentioned was the fact that at that time, shower gel was way more popular in France than it was in the UK, which could explain the soap gap. according to a survey issued last year by Euromonitor, French people shower more than Brits, though they bathe less."
Load More Replies...Full English breakfast, anyone? None better IMO.
Load More Replies...“At the basic level, my project is about meaningful representation,” he explained. “Putting the marginalized, obscured, and erased onto or back onto the map, if only to give more urgency to certain causes or to pinpoint where solidarity needs to take place. You could also say I'm redescribing the world, depicting places in new ways. The intention is not to aggrandize any historical or present nation, nor is it a revanchist stab, but instead, it is to spotlight the cultural diversity that we have inherited in the present, though much of it is no longer clearly visible or has been obfuscated. More importantly, it is about putting to the forefront what we stand to lose in our lifetime.”
Telamon also noted that even the world's languages are reimagined through his maps. "Did you know that only about two or three dozen languages act as the prevailing official languages for the 197 or so countries in our present world? These are languages which, due to a combination of cultural hegemony, economic globalization, and the force and violence of the nation-state, will more than likely crowd out and lead to the downfall of all other adjacent languages. Even other official languages in democracies are not immune. From Ireland to Nigeria to India, the prognosis is bleak. English, as the prevailing and dominant language of business, art and literature, online communication, and bureaucracy, is tracking to win it all—if not within this century, then a couple centuries later.”
Trending Now In Algeria : Image Of The Carina Nebula From James Webb Space Telescope Matching The Eastern Coast Of Algeria
“What’s worse, the dominant languages of our contemporary era represent perhaps only a dozen language families, when there are close to two hundred independent language families currently in existence, each one being worlds apart from the next," Telamon went on to explain. "In Altera, the situation is the opposite. Altera boasts more than a thousand distinct prevailing official languages. Every language family (so nearly two hundred) is represented at least once on the map. In doing so, there are more language families and isolates represented in Altera than there are countries in our current world." He also shared a link to a beta version of an interactive map (desktop only) that allows users to explore just which languages actually make it onto the map as "prevailing official languages".
Hand Drawn Map Of Venice Italy Nearly Completed
European Countries Rated As More Progressive Than USA By The Social Progress Index
We also asked Telamon what he loves most about maps and where that love came from. “Maps lure people into easy moments of discoveries (because they don't have to get out the door and board a plane or trek into the bush),” he shared. “Sure, you have to have the motivation to take the next step of following-up on something interesting you came across on a map, but a map is an alluring hook nevertheless. I have been obsessed with maps ever since my parents bought me a children's atlas of the world, with fun little drawings and pictures for different parts of the world. I memorized every country on the world map by flipping through atlases like these.”
Greenland Without Ice Would Reveal An Enormous Lake Right In The Center Of The Landmass
Queue For Queen Elizabeth II - Visualisation
Countries Which Were Not Invited To Queen Elizabeth II's Funural
New Zealand invited, but was too busy to attend due to ecological problems with moving west of Australia
Telamon shared that he was only 14 when he started creating his own maps. “Oddly, I never really got into fantasy maps. My hobby started with alternate history or historical ‘what if’s. Reflecting on this now, I see that in those days, I was under an unhealthy spell. I thought in terms of states and empires and vainglory. Although alternate history enthusiasts are often interested in the ‘underdogs’ of history, they frequently use the logic of conquest and ‘lost glory’. Most of my early maps were Eurocentric (I'm not even of European descent), and I think partly this was informed by the things I learned in school in Canada.”
“One day, while envisioning on a map a larger and lasting German New Guinea territory, my perspective shifted,” he told Bored Panda. “Here I was trying to surface a viable alternate history scenario in a land where there is this immense cultural diversity, which, unlike where I am in the Pacific Northwest, hasn't even undergone as much erasure as done by states like Canada and the United States. So if I were to dream, why fantasize over more colonialism? More importantly, why dream for more similarity?”
Do You Believe?
Sorry to tell you all, the world would be a better place if this map was all white. Nothing has caused more division, waste, and war.
A Map Of Mexico Carved On The Wall Of A Yucatan Bar
Telamon then went down a rabbit hole researching “amazing but obscure topics in anthropology, ethnobotany, and linguistics”, learning much more about our world, as well as the fantasy worlds many of us immerse ourselves in through books and films. “I realized most of what I was learning about was either hovering or on its way to the past tense. I realized that we live in an uninspired world. Our backdrop has become uninspiring. I feared that soon there would be no more difference to encounter.”
It’s been about a decade since Telamon first started making the maps that would grow into the world of Altera, and although various things pulled his focus away over time, something always brought him back to Atlas Altera. ”During the onset of the pandemic, I tried to wrap up this hobby and take a stab at new interests,” he shared. “I also had a real-life experience of true discovery when I unexpectedly saw the comet Neowise in the night sky on a camping trip in Desolation Sound. This factored into my motivations for printing my maps, but I’m not sure I can articulate why. I tidied up my work and got my main two world maps (the political and chorographical ones) printed to mount on walls. That was an ordeal in itself, but the end result impressed not just myself, but my friends, family, and even the printer and framer. My partner encouraged me to share my project online, and that came to be the beginning of Atlas Altera as a formal project.”
How Earth Will Look With Current International Borders In 250 Million Years
Countries Where Police Do Not Carry Guns
We also asked Telamon why the average person should be interested in maps in the first place. “Maps are about us. They can also be a tool, just as a graph is a tool, to help us envision or visualize relations across space,” he shared. “Maps tell stories. Even just choosing one projection of a map over another can tell a different story or prioritize one story or another. The Mercator map, especially centered on Greenwich, is infamous for how it can prioritize and give extra padding to Europeans,” he noted.
“Why the average person should be interested in my reprojection of the world, however, is because the story I'm trying to tell is something that is hard to piece together when you are living your everyday life,” Telamon explained. “It's hard to access this sort of narrative, this collection of facts, this story of us with this particular set of themes/focus. Here's a quick 5 minute video I made as a teaser/trailer for the project. It's not great, but it helps expand on this idea of ‘reprojection’ that I'm getting at. The political world map of Altera is like a warped projection, one that highlights certain truths over the conventional truths of your average political world map.”
He also added that people often glance at his maps or see them hanging on the wall and don’t even realize they aren’t accurate depictions of the real world. “To me, that's almost a subversive performative act of art, sneaking in fiction into the everyday,” Telamon said. “What this also tells me is that a lot of people are not curious. But the 1/3 of people who do notice a difference or are suspicious enough to look closer, are in for a real treat: genuine moments of ah-has and discoveries or rediscoveries await them as they pore over the details of my map.”
China Emits More Co2 Than The Entire Western Hemisphere
The World According To Google Street View
And while Telamon has come a long way in creating Atlas Altera, his work is not finished yet. “With the power of Reddit and other corners of the Internet, I have attracted supporters from all over the world (you can see the supporter wall map at the bottom of the about/preface page), with a decent amount of Patreon supporters for such a niche project,” he shared. “I know that my YouTube videos have even reached people in places like Tidore (Moluccas), where my work was then passed around a West Papuan group chat.” He noted that he also works with collaborators in the Netherlands, France, Italy, Germany, but he’s always looking for even more assistance. “I have had translation help from people in places like India, the Philippines, Thailand, Egypt, Argentina, Brazil, Spain, Mexico, Poland, and Russia, but I am really in need of connecting with Quechuan speakers in Peru. It would be nice to also reach people in West Africa, Ethiopia, and Australian aboriginal communities.”
The Continent Of Asia At Night
Countries Where It Has Never Snowed (Not Sure For Uruguay)
A Malaysian I went to University with stopped going to class and spent a week in the dining hall or in his nearby room wearing indoor comfort clothes (robe and slippers) because of the snow. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Apparently, he went to sleep and the next morning he was surprised to see 4 in./10 cm. of snow on the ground. (He knew it would snow -- he just didn't expect it to "instantly" appear). Since he'd heard that sometimes people would get caught in snow and die, he was fearful of going outside on his way to class and being Crushed when it suddenly fell from the sky.
The Legal Status Of Homosexuality Worldwide
Russia being green is extremely misleading since homosexuality is considered a mental illness there and it's illegal for entertainment media to depict gay characters positively. Also, if Republicans have their way, homosexuality will soon be illegal in the USA (Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has directly stated this intent).
“Finally, I just want to remind everyone that this is not a roadmap for secessionism, nor is it wholesale advocacy for independence movements," Telamon shared. "Professionally, I do work that facilitates mutual understanding across differences, and I am an advocate for deliberative democracy. All of my work in Atlas Altera is just wishful thinking, because there is a place for that, and it is meaningful, helpful, and even healing to have wishful thinking sometimes.”
If you are looking to check out Atlas Altera or get involved with helping yourself, be sure to check out the project’s website right here.
Countries That Have At Least 50% Forest Coverage
The Route I Drove Around Africa. 53,500 Miles Through 35 Countries. It Took Me 999 Days
We hope you're enjoying this list of maps and that you've got some new fun facts up your sleeve that can be whipped out the next time you're in a social setting. It's always fascinating to find out more about our world, especially when information is accompanied by stimulating visuals like the maps on this list. Keep upvoting your favorites, and feel free to let us know in the comments what the best map you've ever seen was. Then if your map-petite still isn't satiated, you can find Bored Panda's last article featuring the same subreddit right here.
Pixel Art Map Of Argentina
Camouflage Patterns Of European Countries
Map Of Still Inhabited Cities Older Than The USA In The USA
The Theatrum Orbis Terrarum (Or "Theatre Of The World") Is Considered To Be The First True Modern Atlas In 20 May 1570
Map Of World Railway Network, Wikipedia
I would like to see a map of how reliable railway services are in the world.
What Does "World Tour" Actually Mean?
The Insane Scale Of The Ongoing Pakistan Floods Visualized - Sindh Province Comparison August 27, 2021 vs. August 27, 2022
Here Is A Map That Shows The Most Frequent Web Browser Used In Every Country 2012 vs. 2022
Number Of Exorcist In Europe
How Many People Died During World War I?
First Ever European Map Of Japan
V3.0 Traditional Alcohol Preferences Across Europe According To Mostly Reddit Comments
Without Touching A Single Piece Of Land, It's Possible To Sail From India To The USA In A Completely Straight Line
Bible, Quran, Manga Distribution
The True Size Of Argentina, Map 2
% Of Population Able To Hold A Conversation In English
No data on Finland? It's close to 100%. More people could hold a conversation in English than Finnish. (Percentage of population is Swedish speaking, but everybody learns English).
The Empire Of Japan At Its Territorial Height (January Of 1943)
Map Of Public Spots In Budapest Where Adult Videos Were Shot
National Identity In The UK From The 2011 Census
The English identify as English, The Welsh as Welsh, The Scottish as Scottish, The Irish as Irish, the parts of Northern Ireland that identify as British just don't want to be Irish, and Londoners still believe in the British Empire so they can feel superior. We're a strange country.
Most Popular Countries For International Students
The world really needs more international students. Especially more Americans need to experience how much better most other countries are. It's been 30 years and just today I was still talking about my year in Finland.
Sex Ratio By Country For Population Aged Below 15. Red = More Girls, Blue = More Boys
India and China are blue because they will often kill new born girls as they "have no value" !!
South America Map, But With Each Country National Football Team’s Shirt
Olympus Mons Volcano On Mars Compared To The State Of Arizona
World Map From 1548 Based On Giacomo Gastaldi
Percentage Of The European Population Who Believe In The Existence Of Hell
Countries Which Are Richer Than The World Average
Share Of People In Eu That Would Be Comfortable With Their Child Having A Romantic Relationship With A Person Of The Same Sex
A Map Of Found Meth Labs
Japan As Seen From Space (Most Of The Grey Are Cities)
Literal Translation Of Chinese Names For European Countries
The U.s.a. According To Minnesota
I can see this being the only map of the USA left during a zombie invasion
Android vs. iOS Popularity By Continents
idk, UK is another one of those places where having an iphone is becoming a status symbol (even though plenty of other phones have the same features, if not BETTER than apple) it's literally just so you can say "look at me, I can afford an iphone, aren't I special?" no, no you're not, you're just a gullible idiot.
A Flag Map Of Europe But Each Flag Is Determined On Which Country They Share The Shortest Land Border With
For those of you wandering how on earth the Netherlands shares a border with France, you have to go to the other side of the world in the Carribean Sea, where they share the island of Saint Martin/Sint Maarten!
Recognition Of Israel And Palestine 🇮🇱🇵🇸 - Europe Edition
The First Profession Of All The Chief Ministers Of India, July 2022
Female Phenotypes Across Europe And Surrounding Areas
The World Map According To The Board Game Risk
How Much Sleep Are People In Europe Getting 😴
Longest Running Cartoon Set In Each State (Based Off Of Number Of Episodes)
Where The Television Licence Is Required In Europe
Mapping How To Laugh Online In Different Languages
Wow they just made germany 'lach' if you're going like that you could've put 'laugh' on the other countries. Germans also laugh with hahaha
Us Voting Districts With A Least One Election Denier
Household Firearm Onwership In The USA By State. Made By Me. Source In The Picture. Personally, I Would've Expected It To Be Higher
Google Autocomplete In The USA, July 2022
What European Countries Do Americans Like The Most? - Yougov 2022
Land That Would Have Surfaced If Atlantropa Had Happened
From Wikipedia: Atlantropa, also referred to as Panropa, was a gigantic engineering and colonisation idea that was devised by the German architect Herman Sörgel in the 1920s, and promoted by him until his death in 1952.The project was devised to contain several hydroelectric dams in key points of the Mediterranean Sea, such as the Strait of Gibraltar and the Bosporus, to cause a sea level drop and create new land to settle
Current Inflation Rates In Europe
Countries Without Rivers
For the first time in this article I can see my country (the dot near India)
Average Cost Of Basic Gasoline Across The Ue And The Eu In July 2022. 1 Us Gallon Is Around 4 Liters (3.785). 1 Us Dollar Costs 1 Eu Euro In July 2022 🇺🇸🇪🇺
Proposed Borders For Turkey, Drawn By Us President Woodrow Wilson
Redrawing national borders across a multi-ethnic former empire? What could possibly go wrong?
Current Status Of Finland And Swedens Ascension To Nato (As Of 4/8/2022)
Update: Only Hungary and Turkey haven't ratified our membership now. Of course those two are the problem members
"How The War Department Sees The Country", 1940
Military Aircraft Roundels By Country
Australia's is the best in my opinion. Can we all just have symbols based off of a National creature please?
Percentage Of Children Who Have Received Corporal Punishment (At Home Or At School) At Some Point In Their Lives
How Long For An English Speaker To Become Proficient
This is the Duolingo Owl is bullying me for quitting Turkish after two lessons.
The Real Size Of Latin America
Percentage Of The European Population Who Believe In Life After Death
The 26 States Where Abortion Will Likely Become Illegal After Scotus Overturns Roe vs. Wade
Flag Desecration By Country
Countries That Ban Communist Parties (Sep 2022)
Percentage Of People Watching TV Every Day (European Union)
Google Autocomplete In Germany July 2022
Wait, what? We're Germany's direct neighbor and they wonder, why we're not in the EU while we in fact are? We even hold the presidency right now.
Why Most Latin American Countries Don't Support Brazil In A Permanent Seat?
Well, they have a lunatic in charge, but if that was disqualifying who would be left?
Berlin Conference In 1884 - What They Wanted vs. What They Got
They just cut the whole continent up like a thanksgiving turkey didn't they.
By that logic my house isn't mine because it was owned by someone else first.
Load More Replies...By that logic my house isn't mine because it was owned by someone else first.
Load More Replies...