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Chanute, Kansas

Center of Google Earth Mural

A Google software engineer's Easter egg led to what may be the world's most unusual saved screenshot.
Scientists estimate there are some 4,000 bees native to the United States alone—but many of them are struggling to survive in our warming, pesticide-ridden world.
libraries

To Save America's Native Bees, the Oregon Bee Project Is Mapping Every Single One

The project aims to make a complete 'bee atlas,' detailing every single local pollinator.
Kate Raphael September 22, 2023
Red means higher than average anomalies, and blue means lower than average ones.
maps

Uneven Gravity Makes You Weigh More in Illinois Than in Indiana

A number of factors cause you to be lighter or heavier in different parts of the world.
Frank Jacobs, Big Think September 22, 2023
Cartographer Antonio Zatta included Lake de Fonte on this 1776 map. It never existed.
pirates

7 Maps That Can Change How You See the World 

Plus: Our definitive guide to the world’s extraordinary sights.
April White September 22, 2023
Beijing's Forbidden City, built in the 15th century, was constructed based on cosmological principles that endured in China for millennia.
globes

A Square, Flat Earth and Round Heaven Meant the World to Ancient China

For millennia, this cosmological principle guided everything from calendars to urban planning.
James Hannam September 21, 2023
maps

Podcast: Getting Lost in Golden Gate Park

Learn more about orienteering, the sport that forces you to navigate with just old-fashioned maps and compasses—no GPS allowed.
The Podcast Team September 19, 2023
An Iranian Tolkienologist sees swaths of Pakistan and India in J.R.R. Tolkien's specific descriptions of mountains and rivers.
maps

Is Mordor Based on the Himalayas?

Much of Asia seems to be riddled onto the Lord of the Rings map of Middle Earth.
Frank Jacobs, Big Think September 15, 2023
Mannheim, Germany

Mannheim Quadratestadt

In this German city center, the streets have no names.
maps

The Center of the Earth Has an Imaginary Island and One Floating Soul

Fact and fiction blend together at zero latitude and zero longitude.
Frank Jacobs, Big Think September 8, 2023
Myrtle Beach, South Carolina

Franklin G. Burroughs - Simeon B. Chapin Art Museum

This Myrtle Beach art museum features a rotating display of pieces by artists from James Audubon to Frank Lloyd Wright, but it’s their collection of Southern works that truly impresses.
Muhammad al-Idrisi made much better maps than this (we promise).
maps

The Father of Medieval Geography Is Unfairly Blamed for One Very, Very Bad Map

He also made the most accurate world map of that time—and left out the sea monsters.
Frank Jacobs, Big Think September 1, 2023
If not for the Yazoo Land Scandal, Greater Georgia might have encompassed most or all of the current states of Mississippi and Alabama.
maps

The Little-Known Land Fraud That Changed American History

Without this now-obscure land investment scheme, the Yazoo Land Affair, Georgia might have been a "super state."
Frank Jacobs, Big Think August 25, 2023
Printed in a communist youth magazine in the 1930s, Towards Soviet America visits all of capitalist America’s social injustices on the way to “Soviet America” in the center.
objects of intrigue

The Anti-Monopoly Board Game That Promoted a 'Soviet America'

In 1934, American Communists translated a Stalinist book about revolution into a children’s game. Curiously, it didn't catch on.
Frank Jacobs, Big Think August 18, 2023
A herd of Hereford cattle roam a lush green pasture in Australia, home to several of the world's largest private landholdings.
maps

What Do King Charles III, the Pope, and the Canadian Inuit Have in Common?

Meet the world's largest landowners.
Frank Jacobs, Big Think August 11, 2023
This vintage map, published in 1864 by H.H. Lloyd of New York, reflects anti-secession sentiment by taking secession to an extreme conclusion.
maps

A Map of the 'Disunited States' Shows the Fears of Civil War–Era America

A nation divided into not two—but four—took the idea of secession to an extreme.
Frank Jacobs, Big Think August 4, 2023
Jacksonville, Florida

Lewis Ansbacher Map Collection

This collection features more than 240 antiquarian maps from around the world, in addition to historical views and plates focusing on North Florida.
All illustrations: John Mata for Atlas Obscura
maps

Puzzle Monday: On the Map Crossword

AO Puzzles July 31, 2023
Burkhan Khaldun, Genghis Khan’s sacred mountain, in northeastern Mongolia, may hold his burial site.
maps

Mongolia’s 'Forbidden Zone' Is Guarding an 800-Year-Old Secret

Is the vast Khan Khentii Strictly Protected Area the final resting place of Genghis Khan?
Frank Jacobs, Big Think July 28, 2023