Brilliant Maps

Making Sense Of The World, One Map At A Time

Where is the north/south divide? [Map Men]

Last Updated: Leave a Comment

Click To Get My 10 Best Brilliant Maps For Free:

Main Summary

  • 🤔 The north/south divide in England has historical roots dating back to the Viking invasion, leading to suspicion and stereotypes between the two regions.
  • 🏠 The north/south divide in England can have significant impacts on house prices, education, and life expectancy.
  • 🌍 A proper academic study by Professor Danny Dorling took cultural and economic factors into account to determine the north/south divide in the UK.
  • 🌐 The concept of the north/south divide is subjective and can vary depending on different perspectives and interpretations.
  • 🌍 The north-south divide is a global phenomenon, affecting countries like New Zealand, Italy, the USA, and many others.

[Read more…]

Mappa Mundi: the worst world map? [Map Men]

Last Updated: Leave a Comment

Click To Get My 10 Best Brilliant Maps For Free:

Key insights

  • 🗺️ The 13th century Hereford Mappa Mundi is orientated with East at the top, which is why it looks nothing like the actual world.
  • 🗺️ There are no oceans, and only three continents, And THIS is supposed to be Britain!
  • 🌍 Ptolemy’s map of the known world in 100 AD challenges the idea that ancient civilizations lacked scientific knowledge.
  • 🗺️ The Hereford Mappa Mundi seeks to portray a global Christian hegemony by charting the history of creation, the soul’s journey to the afterlife, and predicting the end of the world.

[Read more…]

How to Split a City in Half (Berlin) By City Beautiful

Last Updated: Leave a Comment

Click To Get My 10 Best Brilliant Maps For Free:

Key insights

  • 🏗️ Political ideology clashed with city planning realities when the Iron Curtain split Berlin in two, impacting the lives of 3 million people.
  • 🕰️ 1948 was the year when everything changed for Berlin and where the split really happens.
  • ✈️ The Berlin Airlift provided 1,500 tons of food and 3,500 tons of coal each day to the 2 million people within the Western zone by air.
  • 🚰 East Germany disconnected all essential services connecting West Berlin, including electrical lines, telephone lines, bus and tram services, and water pipes, creating a divide between the two sides.
  • 🧠 The Berlin Wall was built to put an end to the defector loophole and cut off all daily trips between East and West Berlin.
  • 🚧 The Berlin Wall extended to the transit system below ground, with several stations becoming ghost stations and one station, Friedrichstrasse, remaining open as a checkpoint.
  • 🎉 The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 ended West Berlin’s relative isolation, leading to the celebration of the city’s reunification.

[Read more…]

Mesmerizing Map Of Global Aerosol Pollution

Last Updated: Leave a Comment

Click To Get My 10 Best Brilliant Maps For Free:

The video above comes from NASA’s Global Modeling and Assimilation Office and shows global aerosol pollution and other particles. And just to be clear, this is aerosol in the scientific sense:

[Read more…]

Why The United States Is A ‘-Stan’ Country Like Kyrgyzstan

Last Updated: 7 Comments

Click To Get My 10 Best Brilliant Maps For Free:

Map places ending in -stan aka Stanistan

Why are there so many countries that end in -stan? In total 7 countries: Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan include the suffix -stan in their names.

These countries have a combined population of nearly 280 million people (fewer than only China, India and the United States) and cover an area of 5.45 million square kilometers (7th largest in the world).

[Read more…]