The history of the world map

View depictions of world maps throughout history

The first map to use latitude and longitude positions was created by Ptolemy in 150 CE, over 700 years after the oldest known world map, the Imago Mundi, was made with a Babylonian clay tablet. The Spanish crown created a secret master map from hundreds of sailors’ reports.

Common mistakes we make about the world map

Maps have long loosely approximated what the world actually looks like. Here's a few common errors that persist due to outdated conceptions of the world.

Charting 4,000 years of human history

Care to hang all of human history on your wall? This data visualization charts 4,000 years of humanity. This "histomap" was originally published in 1931 and sold for $1 per copy of the 5-foot-long chart. It was said to detail the course of...

An interactive timeline of history, from beginning to middle

The history of humanity is a long, winding road, and the history of everything else is even more complex and interwoven. This interactive timeline takes users through the history of the world and includes links to related videos, blurbs, and events. Each event in history is represented by a dot, providing users with a glittering horizon filled with moments of intrigue and impact.

Mapping the origins of the world's crops

Food has evolved alongside humanity, and through globalized trade, much of the world can enjoy foods once isolated to one region. Examine where your favorite foods originated from and see how diet differs across cultures with these interactive...

Watch the history of human migration that led to civilizations

Starting in Africa where they hunted with spears and fires, humans would gradually move out of the continent over thousands of years as they navigated crossing deserts, rivers, uneven terrain, and shifting climates. Development of technology, language, farming, and other societal structures helped build up the first civilizations.

Explore the medieval world in this 14th-Century map

This virtual replica of a 14th-Century map allows viewers to see the medieval world through a Christian framework. Jerusalem is the center axle of the map, harkening back to the Bible's Old Testament, which states Jerusalem is the "centre of...

A collection of contemporary maps from World War II

Newspapers published detailed maps of the conflict in real-time. See different portrayals of the situation, ranging from propaganda maps to speculative maps about the war's outcome. The fascinating depictions reveal how maps can show us the aspirations and intentions of different players in a global conflict.

Create digital maps of Earth with custom sketches and labels

In this interactive, users can apply layers to various base maps to display natural and human features, including geological activity, biomes, ocean currents, population densities, and light pollution. Custom legends, markers, and drawings can be used to highlight prominent features.

Watch the British Empire expand and recede over 5 centuries

This interactive map traces the British Empire from 1450 to today—showing its explosive 19th-century expansion to one-quarter of the world's land and its steady contraction after World War II.

Mapping early New York

Want to see how Wall Street (and New York City as a whole) has changed over time? Use this timeline and map to see Manhattan today overlaid with the precise boundaries of early land grants to the Dutch in the 1600s. Scroll through the progress of city building through the first century of European settlement there.

Visualizing the symbols and history of world flags

More than 200 world flags feature high-intent designs, projecting ideals and values to the world through archetypal symbols, colors, and shapes. This page effectively depicts the data behind symbol and shape usage, how much each country's flag has changed over time, the most popular colors used, and more in a series of elegantly simple charts.

A timelapse mapping more than 30,000 Transatlantic slave ship voyages

Roughly 12 million people from Africa were forcibly moved to North and South America over two centuries. This map meticulously showcases every ship's origin, destination, timeline, and more, revealing the scale of the Transatlantic slave trade.

Some of the oldest photographs in the world

Scholar and artist Joseph-Philibert Girault de Prangey ventured around the Mediterranean with some of the earliest photographic equipment in tow. He captured hundreds of images during his tour of Rome, Venice, Cairo, and more, in what would become...

What did Earth look like when dinosaurs roamed?

The face of the Earth isn’t remotely the same as when the dinosaurs ruled the roost. The passing of millions of years, plate tectonics, and a spotty track record with asteroid collisions have changed the planet’s surface. Use this interactive globe to see what the Earth looked like millions of years ago.

Trace the rise of oil: from early drilling to today’s global power

This animated map video vividly illustrates how petroleum shaped global politics and industry—from 18th-century uses and 19th-century drilling booms in North America to today’s OPEC strategies, shale revolution, and geopolitical oil influence.

What did people do before eyeglasses were invented?

An estimated two-thirds of the world's adults use a form of prescription glasses or contacts, proof spectacles were a godsend when they were invented in 1286 CE. But what did people do before that? Different tools were used for distinct vision problems, but some would use magnifying lenses, clear emeralds, and more. Watch this video for a historical explanation.

Exploring the link between history, art, and anatomy

Throughout centuries, art has played a vital role in sharing—and furthering—scientific understanding. This largely began in 1543 when physician Andreas Vesalius worked with an artist and engraver to transform learnings from his dissections into...

Historians estimate only 1% of shipwrecks have been discovered

The oldest known shipwreck dates to around 2,700–2,300 BCE, but evidence suggests humans started open-ocean sailing at least 50,000 years ago. Many have completely deteriorated but artifacts aboard the vessels remain, while many lack historical records of the event or location.

The 'definitive' history of magic mushrooms

Where did magic mushrooms come from, and how did they get their magical reputation? This article explains the history of the psychedelic fungi from pre-history to now. The earliest concrete evidence of psychedelic mushroom use is 12,000-year-old murals in Northern Australia that portray mushroom iconography. Considering how many species seek out and consume psychoactive substances, such as Siberian reindeer, it's possible human use of these psychedelic mushrooms may predate these murals.

Learn about the history of the Monroe Doctrine

CBS Sunday Morning explores the origins of the Monroe Doctrine, tracing how a 19th-century warning against European intervention shaped US foreign policy and influenced America’s role in the Western Hemisphere for generations.

The missing continent that took 375 years to find

It took scientists 375 years to discover the eighth continent of the world, which had been hiding in plain sight all along. But mysteries still remain.

New ways of seeing the cosmos have redrawn the map of human identity

From Galileo’s crude spyglass to the James Webb Space Telescope, each technological leap has expanded our observational reach and redefined philosophical and moral conceptions of our place in the universe. Identifying signs of life through the study of exoplanet atmospheres would represent the next great revolution.

250 years of world trade history

Adam Smith’s revolutionary ideas about free trade were often ignored throughout American history to protect domestic industry—until World War II caused a shift in sentiment about global trade.

Who was Ferdinand Magellan, and what did he do?

Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan left Spain on a trip to gather spices and circumnavigate the globe with five ships, more than 250 men, outdated maps, and a profound misunderstanding of the Pacific Ocean's width. Hear from a historian on...

Explore an interactive map built from more than 100,000 survey responses on where people find joy in their lives

Visualize the path of every solar eclipse from 1900 to 2099 and see what each looks like when observed from different locations on Earth.

Stanford built a Google Maps for the Roman Empire, revealing how much it cost to travel in the ancient world

Explore our favorite visualization of the immense scale of space, from an astronaut to the size of the observable universe

Learn more about the history of fireworks, which dates back to an accidental invention during an alchemist's quest for information about immortality.

Explore an interactive map of battles from the American Revolution, along with detailed summaries of each engagement

Explore the history, structure, and species of Australia's Great Barrier Reef with this interactive journey narrated by Sir David Attenborough.

Scientists can determine Earth's past climate conditions by analyzing air trapped in microscopic bubbles within ice cores—columns of compressed snow layers that build up over hundreds of thousands of years.

See a 3D reconstruction of Tenochtitlan, the Aztec capital that was home to an estimated population of 200,000 to 400,000.

See the most iconic photos from four decades of LIFE magazine

The Mona Lisa's celebrity status and repeated restorations have obscured what made the painting so revolutionary for its time

See the 25 of the best photos of auroras from around the world.

Before humans, the Soviet Union and the United States sent animals—including apes, dogs, and cats—to space during the Space Race.

The American cockroach is actually from Africa, an apparent hitchhiker aboard ships carrying enslaved people, with evidence suggesting the bug may have arrived in the New World as early as the 1600s.

According to the physics of black holes, our 4D reality may be a hologram—a projection of information coded on a 2D surface on the edge of the universe.

The Brothers Grimm were lawyers before they were storytellers, but became interested in fairy tales as they began investigating how rules and customs had been passed down through cultures.

The US Constitution is widely regarded as the longest-standing written national constitution still in force—see how it has influenced rights worldwide.

Hear about the 250-year history of the United States Postal Service, complete with some of its strangest deliveries, important innovations, and the figures that made it an American institution.

The term 'algorithm' originated from the Latinized name of al-Khwārizmī, a 9th-century mathematician whose works introduced Arabic numerals and the decimal-based numeral system to Europe and whose treatise 'Al-Jabr' gave algebra its name.

The US first hosted the World Cup in 1994, a tournament that lives in soccer infamy for its poor planning and the murder of Colombian player Andres Escobar, who'd accidentally scored on his own net.

Mid-century modern graphic designers, known for their bright colors and bold lines in advertising, also found success with children's books.

For centuries, it was common to sleep in two shifts: a few hours at the beginning of the night, and a longer period beginning around midnight

See the evolution of Ebola vaccine and treatment development.

Take a 3D tour of the Hajj, Islam's annual pilgrimage to Mecca, undertaken by over 1.5 million Muslims.

In 2019, a laptop loaded with six of the worst malware in history and described as 'an exhibit of historical weaponry' sold for $1.3M.