Explore 36 Cartography Collections - Atlas Obscura
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South and North America
London, England

'The World Turned Upside Down'

Soon after its unveiling, this giant inverted globe sparked controversy and was vandalized.
The trees of the Lost Forty are in general taller than the surrounding woods.
forests

How a Map Mistake Saved a Forest of 300-Year-Old Trees

Minnesota's "Lost Forty" survived the lumberjack's ax thanks to a improperly drawn lake.
Frank Jacobs March 31, 2023
The walled city of Foumban, founded in 1394, as depicted on the map.
objects of intrigue

How Njoya the Great Put His African Kingdom on the Map

A representation of the Bamum kingdom is a rare example of early-20th-century indigenous African cartography.
Frank Jacobs March 24, 2023
The Black Sea at Cape Kaliakra, Bulgaria.
maps

The Paratethys Sea Was the Largest Lake in Earth’s History

The Black, Caspian, and Aral Seas are the last surviving fragments of a body of water that stretched from Austria to Turkmenistan.
Frank Jacobs March 3, 2023
Pune, India

Zero Stone of Pune

One in a series of historical markers from the massive 19th-century undertaking to map all of India.
Waldseemüller’s 1507 World Map
Washington, D.C.

Waldseemüller’s 1507 World Map

This groundbreaking 16th-century map is known as "America's birth certificate."
Bruère-Allichamps Borne
Bruère-Allichamps, France

Bruère-Allichamps Borne Milliaire

Designed to mark the geographical center of France.
A view of the Daily Planet Theater from W Jones St.
Raleigh, North Carolina

The Daily Planet Theater

This hollow steel globe is the second-largest in the world.
You can't miss the sign, flag, and pyramid.
Torpshammar, Sweden

Sweden's Geographical Midpoint

The "geometrical" center of the country, as calculated in 1947.
Osgood, Indiana

Bilby Tower

The last example of an innovative piece of surveying equipment now stands in its inventor's hometown.
Mexico City, Mexico

Museo Nacional de Cartografía

This museum dedicated to cartography is housed in a former 17th-century convent.

Null Island

A busy island at the center of the world that doesn’t actually exist.
The work is often slow-going.
paintings

Mapmaking Taught Skiing’s ‘Rembrandt of Snow’ the Art of Patience

James Niehues has spent decades painting finicky trails.
Max Ufberg January 21, 2021
Video • Wonder From Home

Show & Tell With Colored-Pencil Cartographer Anton Thomas

11:53
maps

Ground Truth

When Cameroon and Nigeria settled their long-standing border dispute, it was just the beginning. Then a 21st-century border had to be laid down.
Jen Banbury September 29, 2019
Cartographer Antonio Zatta included the Lake de Fonte on this 1776 map.
maps

The Cartographers Who Put Water Where It Didn't Belong

From a distance, European mapmakers documenting North America often perpetuated strategic myths of oceans, lakes, and rivers.
Jessica Leigh Hester March 26, 2018
India as charted in the 19th and 20th centuries. Left: 1855 (American); Right: 1920 (British).
maps

The Spies Who Mapped Great Swathes of South Asia by Foot

Using secret tools, and under cover of night, Indian "pundits" charted land for the British.
Eleanor Cummins April 17, 2017
Point Nemo
Antarctica

Point Nemo

At the point of oceanic inaccessibility, you can't get farther from dry land without leaving the planet.