Maps.Interlude: geography, maps and data at a glance

Maps.Interlude is a blog dedicated to maps, geography and data, offering a large collection of visual resources that can help us understand the world through maps. Its posts cover a remarkably wide range of topics, from European housing, employment and agriculture to migration, elections, energy, climate, inequality and tourism. Recent examples include maps showing average home sizes in the EU, the countries with the largest agricultural economies, the length of time people stay with the same employer, military expenditure in Europe, voting ages and wealth inequality.

This makes the website particularly useful for Geography and Social Sciences, but also for subjects such as Economics, History, Citizenship Education or Mathematics, where students can work with statistics, comparisons and geographical information.

For teachers, the blog can be used as a source of short, engaging prompts for classroom discussion. A map about voting age in Europe, for example, could lead students to compare electoral systems and discuss political participation; maps about migration could open a discussion about population movements and diversity; and data on employment, salaries or inequality could provide opportunities to analyse social and economic differences between European countries. Other maps, such as those dealing with climate, energy production or agriculture, can provide starting points for work on sustainability and the European Green Deal.

https://mapsinterlude.wordpress.com/

War Atlas

War Atlas is an interactive online platform that uses maps, satellite images, data visualisations, and historical information to explain how wars and armed conflicts affect people, places, and the environment. Instead of presenting conflict only through written reports, the website allows users to explore geographical information and understand where conflicts take place, how they develop over time, and what impact they have on communities, infrastructure, migration, and natural resources.

The platform combines reliable data with clear visualisations, making complex information easier to understand. Users can examine different conflicts, compare regions, and explore how war changes landscapes and human lives. By presenting information in an interactive format, War Atlas encourages users to look beyond headlines and develop a deeper understanding of the causes and consequences of armed conflict.

For education, War Atlas is a valuable resource because it promotes geographical literacy, critical thinking, and global citizenship. Teachers can use it to help students interpret maps, analyse data, discuss current international issues, and understand the humanitarian impact of war. It is particularly useful in subjects such as Geography, History, Social Studies, Citizenship Education, and English as a Second Language (ESL), where students can work with authentic English-language materials while developing vocabulary related to peace, conflict, human rights, migration, and international relations.

https://waratlas.org/

Reading Maps

Reading Maps is an interactive website that takes the fictional and real-life journeys from famous books and films and plots them onto a digital map of the real world. By bridging the gap between narrative storytelling and actual geography, the platform maps out the literal tracks, roads, rivers, and sea routes taken by iconic characters and historical figures. Users can filter through a massive database of classics, contemporary novels, and cinema—ranging from Homer’s The Odyssey and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein to modern pop culture staples like Harry Potter and The Da Vinci Code—to visually track exactly where these stories take place on our planet.

For educators, Reading Maps is a brilliant cross-curricular utility that brings literature, history, and geography together in a visual format. In an English or literature classroom, it serves as a powerful engagement tool that transforms abstract reading assignments into tangible, spatial adventures, helping students conceptualize the grueling scope of a journey. This spatial visualization is especially beneficial for visual learners and struggling readers who find it difficult to track complex settings or shifting locations solely through text. Furthermore, geography and history teachers can use the site to create highly interactive lessons, encouraging students to compare a character's fictional route against real-world topographies, historical borders, or climate zones. 

https://readingmaps.com/

Running Reality #History

Running Reality is an interactive digital platform that acts as a global, time-based historical map. It lets users explore the world’s history from around 3000 BC to the present by selecting any date and place and watching how borders, cities, civilizations, and events evolved over time. 

Through its browser interface, you can navigate a dynamic world map, view historical data on settlements, battles, rulers, objects, and more, all tied to specific moments in history. The platform is designed for students, teachers, researchers, and anyone curious about the past, and it includes educational tools specifically tailored for classroom use. 

Every historical “factoid” in Running Reality is backed by a verifiable citation, making the model transparent and academically reliable. What makes it unique is its ability to visualize history as a living timeline—allowing you to scroll through centuries, watch territories expand or disappear, and understand historical processes in a highly intuitive, interactive way.

Find Running Reality on:

https://www.runningreality.org/

Brilliant Maps

Brilliant Maps is a website that helps people “make sense of the world, one map at a time.”  It publishes interesting, quirky, and often surprising maps on topics ranging from geography and history to social phenomena. 

On the site you’ll find maps like “All the Countries That Have Militarily Defeated the United States,” “European Countries With No Mountains,” or visualisations of how many hours young people spend doing unpaid domestic work. 

Each map usually comes with explanation or commentary about what it reveals, including sources, caveats, and sometimes comparisons or additional data. 

Find it on:

https://brilliantmaps.com/

Mused. Map simulator (via Nao Casanova @NaoCasanova)

Mused.com is an online platform that lets users explore virtual, interactive tours of famous cultural heritage sites using 3D technology and WebXR. It offers immersive experiences, such as guided tours of ancient sites like the Great Pyramid of Giza or Tutankhamun’s Tomb—accessible directly from a web browser on PCs, mobile devices, or VR headsets.

It is an amazing tool for education as it removes barriers of distance, cost, and mobility, making iconic cultural sites available to anyone, it supports independent and group learning, and it is excellent for integrating lessons on history, art, geography, or cultural studies—even allowing students to compare ancient sites across civilizations.

Find it on:

https://mused.com/map/

Language World Map

Language World Map is a website that allows you to check the places around the world where a specific language is spoken. 

On the homepage, there is a text box where you should enter the language you want to search for. Once entered, a world map will appear, with countries and territories where that language is spoken highlighted in green. By clicking on each country, relevant information such as the country's population, cost of living, other official languages, etc., will be displayed. 

https://languageworldmap.com/ 

Old Maps Online

OldMapsOnline began as a collaboration between Klokan Technologies GmbH, Switzerland and The Great Britain Historical GIS Project based at the University of Portsmouth, UK thanks to funding from JISC. 

Since January 2013 is the project improved and maintained by volunteers and the team of Klokan Technologies GmbH in their free time.

OldMapsOnline.org indexes over 400.000 maps.

https://www.oldmapsonline.org/

Map Puzzle

Educational cartographic online puzzles. You can complete maps of the world, countries and regions by dragging them into their proper places on a map. 

You can also share your results on social networks 

Find it on:

http://mappuzzle.xyz/

American Panorama

American Panorama is an historical atlas of the United States that combines cutting-edge research with innovative interactive mapping techniques. It is an ongoing project created by the Digital Scholarship Lab at the University of Richmond.

American Panorama has been designed to appeal to anyone with an interest in American history or a love of maps. 

Find it on:

https://dsl.richmond.edu/panorama/ 

The David Rumsey Map Collection

The David Rumsey Map Collection contains more than 150,000 maps. and focuses on rare 16th through 21st century maps of North and South America, as well as maps of the World, Asia, Africa, Europe, and Oceania. The site is free and open to the public. 

The collection includes atlases, wall maps, globes, school geographies, pocket maps, books of exploration, maritime charts, and a variety of cartographic materials including pocket, wall, children's, and manuscript maps.

Digitization of the collection began in 1996 and there are now over 100,000 items online, with new additions added regularly. 

(Source https://www.davidrumsey.com/about) 

Visit The David Rumsey Map Collection on:

https://www.davidrumsey.com/ 

Reviving the Statistical Atlas of the United States with New Data

Nathan Yau, a PhD in statistics from UCLA, has recreated the original Statistical Atlas of the United States with current data.

Visit this amazing work that makes interesting data about USA available and visual:

https://flowingdata.com/2015/06/16/reviving-the-statistical-atlas-of-the-united-states-with-new-data/

Nathan Yau on Twitter:

@flowingdata

World Press Freedom Day

The United Nations General Assembly declared May 3 to be World Press Freedom Day or World Press Day to raise awareness of the importance of freedom of the press.

Press plays an important role in ESL & EFL learning. The following interactive resource will help your students know about the problems that jounalists face when doing their job.

The World Press Freedom Index ranks 180 countries according to the level of freedom available to journalists. Published every year since 2002 by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), the Index has a growing influence as a tool that reminds governments of their duty to respect the right to freedom expression.

https://rsf.org/en/ranking

Smarty Pins

Smarty Pins is a browser-based game developed by Google that test your knowledge on geography across a number of categories: arts & culture, science, sports & games, entertainment and history & current events. You have to answer by placing a pin on a map.

You start each game with a bank of 1,000 miles/ 1,609 kilometres. You can lose miles/ kilometres for answering incorrectly and or taking too long to answer. The game subtracts the number of miles/ kilometres you're off by for each answer.. Fast, correct answers earn extra miles/ kilometres to keep the player’s journey going longer. When your bank hits zero, it is game over.

You can share your scores via Twitter, Facebook or Google+.

https://smartypins.withgoogle.com/

As simple as addictive.

Map Maker Interactive

Amazing resource created and maintained by National Geographic Education & Children's Media. By using Map Maker Interactive you can create and share your maps. Tools to overlay different themes (water, land, climate, population, political system...) and to draw and place a variety of different markers are provided.

You can save them as an XML or PNG file, share with others via link and modify and use the maps in any way, subject to the following conditions:

- You charge no fee for anyone to view or use any item that includes or is based on this map image or screen shot.

- You include the following credit or attribution in the same visual field as any use: "Map from National Geographic's MapMaker Interactive; data from [insert data sources here]". Data sources include the attribution from the base map, included on the lower right corner of the map, and for any map layers visible on the map. To see the data source of any map layer activated on your map, click the information icon in the legend. Some map layers have additional restrictions and cannot be used in screenshots, and this will be noted in the information text accessed from the legend.

http://mapmaker.education.nationalgeographic.com/?ar_a=1&b=1&ls=000000000000#/