"Less than 10% of the world's land is more than 48 hours of ground-based travel from the nearest city." In August, archeologists discovered what may be the oldest map in the world. Years ago, MetaFilter introduced us to the concept of the "upside-down map". But a new map released Friday attempts to illustrate how our improved transportation network has managed to consolidate distances on earth.
posted by jefficator on Oct 26, 2009 - 48 comments

The World's Best Alternative Subway Maps, including Eddie Jabbour's NYC Kick Map.
posted by nickyskye on Aug 7, 2009 - 48 comments

A map of the top 50 craft breweries in America by volume. State map of per capita beer consumption. [more inside]
posted by baphomet on Mar 29, 2009 - 119 comments

Powhatan's Mantle was the emblem of kingship worn by Wahunsenacawh, also known as Chief Powhatan, father of Pocahontas. A deerskin cloak ornamented with shell beadwork, it may at first appear to be only clothing but in fact it is also a map of the Powhatan Confederacy, which ruled most of eastern Virginia when the English first settled there. The mantle was acquired by one of the John Tradescants whose collection was the foundation of Oxford University's Ashmolean Collection and the mantle resides there still today. The first linked article is a fascination article about the mantle as well as a gallery of images of and related to Powhatan's Mantle.
posted by Kattullus on Feb 12, 2009 - 5 comments

National Geographic Map of the Day. Previously featuring maps that run the gamut from automotive discovery and exploration; through literary, witchhunts and imaginary; to historical and Olympic.
posted by Mitheral on Aug 15, 2008 - 9 comments

Satirical maps of Europe from 1914-15.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane on Aug 6, 2008 - 25 comments

Maps: Finding our place in the world is an exhibit at the Walters Art Gallery in Baltimore, and it runs until this Sunday June 8. That page contains images of a few of the maps. One of the many great things included is an animated map of the US Civil War in 4 minutes (one week per second, timeline noted at bottom, casualty counter rolling in bottom right corner - info about this animation) The exhibition book was previously linked here; that site includes higher-resolution versions of some more of the maps. I was floored by all the stuff they have; in terms of the rarity of the stuff in it, and the geek-delight factor, I think it's probably the best gallery show I've ever seen. [more inside]
posted by LobsterMitten on Jun 4, 2008 - 24 comments

Landsat Image Mosaic Of Antarctica UK and US researchers peice together the most detailed map of Antarctica yet, searching through years of data to find cloud free images.
posted by Artw on Nov 27, 2007 - 17 comments

Maps new and old. Music maps - Find out who is listening to what and where l Cool Google Maps - Who knew maps could be fun? l Subway maps on five continents l Free printable world map and blank maps l Free Clustr Maps - Locate all site visitors. l Index of some users of WorldKit - Easy web mapping (including the excellent and previously mentioned, RSOE HAVARIA Emergency and Disaster Information Service) l Number of Inhabitants Per Doctor around the world l And some beautiful antique, old and vintage maps, such as this one of the names of the Mediterranean winds in five languages. [more inside]
posted by nickyskye on Nov 4, 2007 - 17 comments

Canada at scale: Exploration, colonization and development. And a pop-up menu. Go, eh!
posted by St Urbain's Horseman on Sep 25, 2007 - 30 comments

Trulia Hindsight merges real estate data showing the year properties were built with animated maps (US Only). Search for your town by name; here's mine.
posted by oneirodynia on May 29, 2007 - 10 comments

Live, From Outer Space: rural fires [1, 2], The Haze in China [1 ,2, 3] and its movement, aerosols, and the brothers carbon monoxide [a photochemical smog agent] and carbon dioxide.
posted by trinarian on Apr 14, 2007 - 10 comments

a Google Maps view of NYC, centered on Central Park Google Maps has started displaying subway stops (with the names of the lines that serve each each stop) in New York City. Clearly this is a work in progress (full building outlines are available only in some parts of Manhattan and Brooklyn, and some subway stops currently list only one of the multiple trains that serve the stop). Still, this is excellent news not only for natives but also for tourists (whose only subway-map reference may be the significantly, sometimes radically "not to scale" version put out by the MTA).
posted by allterrainbrain on Feb 9, 2007 - 46 comments

Ever wondered how your state stacks up? Well, with this nifty tool, you can decide how the next revision should read! Also check out the state-by-state version!
posted by TheNewWazoo on Oct 23, 2006 - 19 comments

Manhattan Goes Travelling
posted by Tlogmer on Jun 2, 2006 - 22 comments

A9 Maps now combines Amazon's BlockView images in another ajax map interface (with the maps by Mapquest, interestingly). Amazon has been driving around major cities taking photos of each block and now as you browse the map, street-level images come up alongside. The interface isn't quite intuitive, but it is nice to see the idea coming together.
posted by pithy comment on May 16, 2006 - 17 comments

"Getting There." MapQuest demystified from The New Yorker.
posted by stbalbach on Apr 21, 2006 - 21 comments

Find the Landmark: A Google Maps Game
posted by Vidiot on Aug 1, 2005 - 9 comments

Chicagocrime.org takes the Chicago Police Department's Citizen ICAM and puts it into an easily searchable -- by crime type, street, date, district or location type -- format, along with a Google Map. Who knew police station parking lots were so dangerous?
posted by me3dia on May 19, 2005 - 10 comments

Maps
Looking for Maps? Please click on the country of interest.
• Australia
• Canada
• France
• Ireland
• New Zealand
• United Kingdom
• United States

Found while searching for this thread.
posted by fenriq on Jan 12, 2005 - 23 comments

Mappr demonstrates the potential of open web APIs by plotting recently uploaded Flickr photos onto their locations using an interactive map of the US. Map24 mixes Mapquest and Keyhole (previously discussed here) by doing realtime zooming on your driving directions; good for not losing context on those tricky merges. The National Map lets you see overlaid info from the US government's geologic surveys. What are some of the best designed interactive map sites?
posted by acid freaking on the kitty on Jan 12, 2005 - 19 comments

Aerial photos. Maps. Overlaid. Fantastic.
posted by iffley on Oct 4, 2004 - 35 comments

Piri Reis Map I am a sucker for those books that hypothesize that Earth was visited by extra-terrestrials in the distant pass. One artifact that is brought up in nearly all of them is The Piri Reis Map, a document that seems to be a map includes parts of the world (such as Antarctica's ice-covered mountains) that were thought to be very recent discoveries. But, are they a hoax?
posted by synecdoche on Apr 21, 2004 - 14 comments

A pattern map for a conservation economy [Flash.] "The pattern map offers a visual guide to the sustainability patterns that provide a framework for developing a conservation economy." [Via WorldChanging.]
posted by homunculus on Dec 7, 2003 - 8 comments

Finally... something good has come from a newsfilter post! In a trackback to a recent post on something-or-other (aren't they all the same?) I discovered a gem of a site dedicated to maps.
posted by silusGROK on Jul 9, 2003 - 11 comments

802.11b Survey Map of NYC Following the NYC Bloggers Map, what else should mapped in NYC, smoking rooms?
posted by Voyageman on Dec 12, 2002 - 17 comments

Map-making for fun and profit! How would you like to be born on Buttlickin Ave? Is this for real? Or Someone messing with yahoo's map software? Inquiring minds want to know!
posted by Maxor on Oct 16, 2002 - 36 comments

The ThreeRing Web Mapping project adds a dot to a blank canvas showing your geographic location (or that of your ISP, as best it can guess based on your IP address). They've also got a code snippet to put on your own site that automagically adds your visitors to the map. The US is already clearly defined, Europe is getting there, and Oceania is coming into view. (They've also got one of them Tag-Board thingies, which is painful to read for any length of time.)
posted by gleuschk on Apr 5, 2002 - 26 comments

There are several sites that present maps of the Internet: geographic, technical, and historical. And now, you can hang one on your wall.
posted by tranquileye on Oct 23, 2001 - 7 comments

World At War A map, list of current and past conflicts with detailed insight.
posted by adnanbwp on Sep 17, 2001 - 6 comments

The World [Map] According to America Quite funny indeed...
posted by tatochip on May 8, 2001 - 16 comments

Remember the movie "The Day After?" Back in the Cold War days, we were all worried about someday being vaporized by a nuclear blast. Well now, in this post-Cold War era you can relive those wonderful memories with PBS' Nuclear Blast Mapper. I popped in the coordinates for MetaFilter's server location, set the bomb to a 25 megaton blast and this is the result. Think about that the next time you hear a country gets their first nuclear weapons.
posted by mathowie on Feb 3, 2000 - 5 comments