Strange Maps
Frank has been writing about strange maps since 2006, published a book on the subject in 2009 and joined Big Think in 2010. Readers send in new material daily, and he keeps bumping in to cartography that is delightfully obscure, amazingly beautiful, shockingly partisan, and more. "Each map tells a story, but the stories told by your standard atlas for school or reference are limited and literal: they show only the most practical side of the world, its geography and its political divisions. Strange Maps aims to collect and comment on maps that do everything but that - maps that show the world from a different angle."
![](https://webcf.waybackmachine.org/web/20211020002604im_/https://bigthink.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Screen-Shot-2021-09-15-at-1.18.10-AM.png?resize=640,360)
![](https://webcf.waybackmachine.org/web/20211020002604im_/https://bigthink.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Cropped-image.jpeg?resize=320,180)
A 19th century family portrait of comets
![](https://webcf.waybackmachine.org/web/20211020002604im_/https://bigthink.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Cropped-Dish.png?resize=320,180)
Why this Japanese seafood dish outrages both Koreas
![](https://webcf.waybackmachine.org/web/20211020002604im_/https://bigthink.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/maps.jpeg?resize=320,180)
What did Europeans actually discover? Not all that much
![](https://webcf.waybackmachine.org/web/20211020002604im_/https://bigthink.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Cropped-Dick.png?resize=320,180)
Don’t even try to read “Moby Dick” without this map
![](https://webcf.waybackmachine.org/web/20211020002604im_/https://bigthink.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Cropped-Energy-Map-copy.png?resize=320,180)
Electricity generation by U.S. state
![](https://webcf.waybackmachine.org/web/20211020002604im_/https://bigthink.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/North-America-copy-3.png?resize=320,180)
U.S. vs. Canada: five modern-day territorial disputes
![](https://webcf.waybackmachine.org/web/20211020002604im_/https://bigthink.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/135837-135838.png?resize=320,180)
Did dark magic conjure up the British Empire?
Esoteric evidence points to a ritual performed by Queen Elizabeth's court magician John Dee.
![](https://webcf.waybackmachine.org/web/20211020002604im_/https://bigthink.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/135245-135246.jpg?resize=320,180)
Europe’s oldest map shows tiny Bronze Age kingdom
Discovered in 1900, the Saint-Bélec slab languished unrecognized in a castle basement for over a century.
![](https://webcf.waybackmachine.org/web/20211020002604im_/https://bigthink.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/135234-135235.png?resize=320,180)
Peak foliage map: where and when are leaves changing color?
Starting just about now, leaves start changing color from north to south, high to low, light to dark.
![](https://webcf.waybackmachine.org/web/20211020002604im_/https://bigthink.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/135268-135269.png?resize=320,180)
Here’s how early school begins – and why it is bad for students
In Louisiana, high school starts at 7:30 am. Research shows that is at least an hour too early.
![](https://webcf.waybackmachine.org/web/20211020002604im_/https://bigthink.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/134230-134231.jpg?resize=320,180)
German street names still echo Nazi, Communist, and even Roman past
Even 1500 years after the fall of Rome, its western border can still be seen on German street maps.
![](https://webcf.waybackmachine.org/web/20211020002604im_/https://bigthink.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/origin-113.jpg?resize=320,180)
Hey, methane leakers: Now we know where you live
A European start-up uses satellite data to pinpoint individual sources of abnormal methane concentration.
![](https://webcf.waybackmachine.org/web/20211020002604im_/https://bigthink.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/origin-82.jpg?resize=320,180)
Does Tristan da Cunha have the world’s weirdest place names?
The world's most isolated inhabited island also has some of the world's strangest toponyms.
![](https://webcf.waybackmachine.org/web/20211020002604im_/https://bigthink.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/origin-51.jpg?resize=320,180)
Cyclist draws festive reindeer on map of London
Giant Christmas image took 80 miles and nine hours to make
![](https://webcf.waybackmachine.org/web/20211020002604im_/https://bigthink.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/origin-1627.jpg?resize=320,180)
London’s a shallow Christian sea with islands of other faiths
![](https://webcf.waybackmachine.org/web/20211020002604im_/https://bigthink.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/origin-1648.jpg?resize=320,180)
Highest resolution of any continent: A stunning new map of Antarctica
![](https://webcf.waybackmachine.org/web/20211020002604im_/https://bigthink.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/origin-1679.jpg?resize=320,180)
Does this world map finally tell the truth (or just lie a little less)?
![](https://webcf.waybackmachine.org/web/20211020002604im_/https://bigthink.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/origin-1688.jpg?resize=320,180)
In 1921, Canada developed a secret plan to invade the U.S.
![](https://webcf.waybackmachine.org/web/20211020002604im_/https://bigthink.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/origin-6.jpg?resize=320,180)
Dutch Golden Age wasn’t all that Dutch
![](https://webcf.waybackmachine.org/web/20211020002604im_/https://bigthink.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/origin-45.jpg?resize=320,180)
China and Europe stand out on world map of atheism
![](https://webcf.waybackmachine.org/web/20211020002604im_/https://bigthink.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/origin-94.jpg?resize=320,180)
Huge color-coded map shows the world’s most ancient and recent borders
![](https://webcf.waybackmachine.org/web/20211020002604im_/https://bigthink.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/origin-125.jpg?resize=320,180)
These maps show how much range America’s wild animals have lost
![](https://webcf.waybackmachine.org/web/20211020002604im_/https://bigthink.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/origin-159.jpg?resize=320,180)
A man, a van, a GPS tracker: This Brit is writing ‘STOP BREXIT’ across Europe
![](https://webcf.waybackmachine.org/web/20211020002604im_/https://bigthink.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/origin-168.jpg?resize=320,180)
Just 10 streams carry 95% of all river-borne plastic into the ocean
![](https://webcf.waybackmachine.org/web/20211020002604im_/https://bigthink.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/origin-179.jpg?resize=320,180)
The U.S. is Cow Country, and other lessons from this land use map
![](https://webcf.waybackmachine.org/web/20211020002604im_/https://bigthink.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/origin-214.jpg?resize=320,180)
Turkish province wants its borders to look like Batman logo
![](https://webcf.waybackmachine.org/web/20211020002604im_/https://bigthink.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/origin-12.jpg?resize=320,180)
Sierra Leone is the world’s roundest country (and Egypt the squarest one)
![](https://webcf.waybackmachine.org/web/20211020002604im_/https://bigthink.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/origin-34.jpg?resize=320,180)
Meet the joke party that wants to ‘Make Hungary Smaller Again’
![](https://webcf.waybackmachine.org/web/20211020002604im_/https://bigthink.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/origin-63.jpg?resize=320,180)
Street grids matter more to your commute than you might think
![](https://webcf.waybackmachine.org/web/20211020002604im_/https://bigthink.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/origin-112.jpg?resize=320,180)