Illuminating Maps That Might Change Your Perspective On Many Things

Basically all the things you probably didn't know and never thought you needed to know.

Ayoub

• Published in Interesting
• April 8, 2022

Maps have always been useful tools that we initially only used for navigation. Today, we still rely on maps every day, delivery services cannot function nowadays without access to digital map services.

Maps can be more than a navigation tool and can be used to illustrate data in the most beautiful ways. Looking at a map becomes much more educational and tells you various kinds of info that have nothing to do with navigation.

It's pretty much an empty canvas that we utilize to display accurate data about a certain region or country. Some internet users are so obsessed with maps that they formed huge communities online to be able to share interesting maps with each other.

One of the most popular ones is a subReddit called r/MapP0rn, it has more than 1.8m members and the content on it is so informative and visually pleasing. it's basically heaven for map nerds. Scroll down and check out some of the best content from the r/MapP0rn subReddit.

Some of the info you will find here is quite interesting. Although the most unique thing about it is that you never actually knew that you wanted to be informed about that particular subject but in the end, you will be glad you got to learn about it.

1. "The Journey Of An Arctic Fox Who Walked From Norway To Canada In 2018"

2. "The Baltic Way. On 23 August 1989, Two Million People Joined Their Hands To Form A Human Chain Spanning 675.5 Km Across The Three Baltic States. The Protest Was Against The Soviet Occupation, And To Support The Independence Movements Of The Three States"

3. "A Map Art Piece I'm Working On Of Paris' Latin Quarter"

4. "No One Lives In The Green Part Of New Zealand,the Population Density There Is 0 People Per Km And That Is About 78% Of New Zealand Land"

5. "Zealandia, The 8th Continent That's Almost Entirely Submerged"

6. The Rivers Of Italy

7. "Territories Where Married Gay Couples Can Buy Rifles To Protect Their Marijuana Plants"

8. "Wolf Distribution In Italy Since 1900"

9. "Reported UFO Sightings Map. Last 115 Years"

10. "The Easternmost Point Of Brazil Is Closer To Africa Than To Its Westernmost Point"

11. "The Longest Possible Train Travel In The World"

12. "Existence Of Pangaea Proven With Evidence Of Similar Fossils Across Continents"

13. "Closer To Paris Or To London?"

14. "Countries That Have Yet To See True Temperature Extremes"

15. "After Tokyo 2020 This Map Remains The Same. All Men’s Water Polo Gold Medal Winners Since 2000 Were Born Inside This Circle

16. Variations Of The Given Name “Paul”

17. "Land Reclamation In The Netherlands"

18. "Butter Or Olive Oil? Based On Actual Per Capita Consumption"

19. The Strait Of Gibraltar

20. "Europe If The Sea Level Rose 100m"

21. "Share Of Young People Aged 25 -34 Living With Parents"

22. "Number Of Prisoners Per 100 000 People In European Countries"

23. "Traditional Hats Of Europe"

24. "Sun Tanning vs. Skin Whitening"

25. "Languages Of Europe Using Lemon And Citrus"

26. "Percentage Of People Who Trust Climate Scientists, 2020"

27. How Do You Sneeze?

28. "Percentage Of Indians With Toilet 2014 vs. 2017"

29. "Countries That Are Obligated To Defend The United States And Vice Versa"

30. "North America Compared To Jupiter"

31. "Countries Where It's Illegal To Smack Children!"

32. "Countries Whose Local Names Are Extremely Different From The Names They're Referred To In English"

33. "Nearly Half Of American Will Have Obesity By 2030"

34. "Number Of Cigarettes Smoked Per Smoker Per Day In European Countries"

35. "Percentage Of Obese Population Per Country In Europe"

I'm already hooked on maps after this short but very educational list. It's a great learning experience and the way the data is depicted makes it much more entertaining and interesting.

To think about all the things that can be illustrated with the help of maps, it's only a matter of time before someone does it. I refuse to learn anything else from now on if it's not depicted on an aesthetically pleasing map.

It's the best way to learn in my opinion and we should advocate for more map learning everywhere. Even if it doesn't belong on a map, they should try anyway.

Ayoub