Alternative map. Alternative world map: what our planet looks like in other projections

The world map, familiar to everyone from school, made in the Mercator projection, is far from the only option for depicting our planet on a plane. All the modern variety of cartographic projections arose with one single goal - to depict the spherical Earth as accurately as possible on a sheet of paper. And since this task is very complex, many options for solving it have been proposed. But they are all far from ideal: somewhere too large distortion distances, angles are displayed incorrectly in some places, and some options are too difficult to understand. Nevertheless, among them there are many interesting solutions, which we suggest you familiarize yourself with.

Projection "Butterfly"

This polyhedral projection got its name from the shape of a butterfly, and it was created at the beginning of the 20th century by the American cartographer Bernard Cahill.

Dymaxion projection

The Dimaxion projection, or Fuller projection, is a development of a polyhedron and can depict the globe in various ways. The projection was created by the American engineer Buckminster Fuller in the 40s of the last century. The length of each face of this polygon corresponds to the length of the arc of the globe, and the surface inside the triangle is compressed relative to its real dimensions.

Goode projection

This map was created by American cartographer John Hood in 1923. It combines different types of projections that are designed to reduce area distortion compared to the traditional Mercator projection.

Werner projection

This pseudo-conical projection in the shape of a heart was created at the beginning of the 16th century by the Austrian Johannes Stabius, and a little later supplemented and improved by the German priest Johannes Werner.

Pierce projection

This conformal projection was created by American mathematician Charles Peirce in 1879.

Sea monsters, alternate history and a map of the true "Path to Success"... We continue to be attracted to unusual maps. Let's take a look at cartographic wonders from around the world, from its inception to today.

Keith Thompson created this cartoon map of Europe on the eve of World War I for Scott Westerfeld's graphic novel Leviathan:

When most of the world was not yet mapped, the world's mysterious oceans were filled with strange, imaginary creatures that supposedly lived there. This is a map from 1550 with images of sea monsters:

And here is a picture of a sea monster that supposedly lives near the North African coast of Sicily:

In this map of Asia from 1570 we see a rather curiously shaped Japan and a Pacific Ocean inhabited by mermaids and strange sea creatures:

Here's another one old map Southeast Asia mid-seventeenth century:

This decorative map of the North Pole was created by the famous cartographer Gerardus Mercator in 1623:

Compare this with a map showing current territorial claims in the Arctic by countries bordering the North Pole:

And on the other side of the earth, on a map from 1570, we see the imaginary large southern continent of Terra Australis Incognita:

Have you ever wondered what Antarctica would look like without ice? One person puts it this way:

In this amazing language map of Europe you can see how national borders match the languages ​​spoken by locals:

And here we see the national distribution in perhaps the most famous multinational empire, the Habsburg Austro-Hungarian Empire (1911):

German-speaking Europeans once belonged to the Holy Roman Empire, which, as it turns out, was neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire:) Just look at the many individual states belonging to the former Holy Roman Empire - this map is drawn in 1789, on the eve of the French Revolution:

How about an empire spanning three continents? Here we see the powerful Ottoman Empire under Suleiman I the Magnificent, around 1580:

According to this map, Gran Colombia included today's Colombia, Ecuador, Panama and Venezuela, as well as parts of Guyana, Peru and Brazil.

And on this bright, delightful map of the USA, each state has its own (but actually foreign) flag:

Amazing comparisons

Below are the maps for those who have forgotten that Australia is also a continent. This map shows how big Australia is in relation to all of Western Europe:

This interesting map also reminds us of how large Africa is compared to the largest countries in the world:

Unfortunately, Africa also stands out prominently on this map showing the ratio of inhabitants per doctor:

Whimsical Illustrations in Cards

This curious map of Scotland is drawn as... a Scotsman, 1869 (bottom left):

This is an earlier map showing Ireland as Lady Hibernia, 1795 (Hibernia is the Roman name for Ireland) (photo top right). It was drawn by Robert Dighton, a famous portrait painter and caricaturist of the eighteenth century.

This beautifully drawn map depicts the Netherlands and Belgium as a lion. In 1617, when the map was created, they were united as one country, although the territory was controlled by the Spanish:

British cartographer Lilian Lancaster drew this map depicting the 1880 American election:

The map of Europe from Adidas is actually modern, it is dedicated to the Euro 2008 football championship:
Excellent educational material. Geographic maps "from the creation of the world" to the present day.

Originally posted by asaratov at The most unusual geographical maps of the world...

Terrible monsters that swallow ships, mysterious signs that accurately indicate the boundaries of storms and dangerous currents. Many people like cards antique maps, with sea serpents and terrible monsters swallowing ships in the vast expanses of the ocean, maps showing what the world looked like in the distant and not-so-distant past.

Jerusalem in the Center, Itinerarium Sacrea Scripturea by Henry Banting, 1545-1606

The Contino Planisphere of 1502 is the earliest surviving map showing the discoveries of Portuguese sailors to the west and east. She is considered the most early card America (except for the map called "Certificate of Birth of America") and shows the Caribbean islands and part of the coast of Florida, as well as Africa, Europe and Asia with the coast of Brazil, discovered a few years earlier:

Fragment: Europe and Jerusalem

Fragment: Caribbean Islands

Fragment: coast of Brazil (left), Persian Gulf (right)

Pietro Coppo's map of 1502 is one of latest cards, displaying the so-called “Tail of the Dragon”, coming from Asia and based on the idea of ​​Ptolemy, who 1500 years ago believed that the Indian Ocean was surrounded on all sides by land:

The next great map, a map of Venice, shows most of the buildings from 1565. Maps in this style are still quite often found on tourist postcards and in guidebooks of this city:

From the Asian "Dragon's Tail" to Mythical Sea Animals

The ornate Carta Marina of 1539 may appear incomplete by modern standards, but satellite imagery has shown that sea monsters depicted in some parts of the ocean on the map correspond to well-known storm fronts, currents and other marine hazards. This may have been a warning sign for sailors of the time who ventured into those areas:

Another map showing monsters in the seas surrounding Iceland in the early 16th century:

A magnificent catalog of "sea monsters" inhabiting the ancient seas and the imagination of seafarers

And finally, the whale island, printed in Novi Orbis Indiae Occidentals in 1621:

The earth is upside down

The southern parts of the planet were the very last parts depicted on the map by Europeans during the time of great geographical discoveries. But the idea of ​​"Terre Australis" appeared back in the time of Aristotle in the 4th century. BC. Many different theories arose over these centuries: in the south the Indian Ocean is separated by land, the land of the northern hemisphere should be balanced by the land in the southern hemisphere, Africa extends to South Pole. In 1820, Antarctica was finally discovered in an area that had previously always been associated with Australia. Here is a map from 1587. with a mythical continent occupying a large part of the southern hemisphere:

A fragment of a decorative map of the world with Antarctica and part of North America, which was issued in Amsterdam in 1689:

The Italian map of North America from 1566 is one of the first maps to show the northernmost parts, such as Canada:

Alternative history on hypothetical maps

The alternative history genre has given rise to a certain number of hypothetical maps. The following maps reflect what Europe might have looked like if Germany had won in the 1940s:

In the same spirit, the 1964 world map is based on the novel Fatherland, the idea of ​​which is the assumption that Germany won the Second World War. The Third Reich is marked in red, the European Union, representing Nazi allies and conquered nations, in brown, colonial possessions in orange, US and Allied possessions in blue, and neutral countries in yellow:

Next comes a map based on J. Orwell's novel "1984." Areas on the map marked as disputed and leading to a perpetual state of conflict between different power blocs are reminiscent of Cold War tensions in Africa and Asia between the superpowers:

In the 70s C. Etzel Piercy, a geography teacher, proposed reconsidering the boundaries of US states. According to his theory, the country should consist of 38 states with new names, representing areas distinct from each other culturally and physically. Naturally, this idea was not implemented, but it is very interesting:

Another idea of ​​​​revising the borders of the United States took place in the advertising campaign for Absolut vodka, which took place in Mexico and caused a great resonance. There have been calls in the US to boycott Swedish vodka. And yet the map has some real bases, because... Mexico lost the territories of Alta California and New Mexico during the Mexican-American War of 1846-1848. Mexico ceded 42% of its territory, which later became the states of California, Nevada and Utah, as well as parts of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Wyoming. Absolut apologized, noting that the ad was created for the Mexican market and did not mean that the company opposed immigration, created anti-American sentiment, did not demand a revision of borders, etc.

For those who doubt the above, here is a map of Mexico in 1824 with territories later given to the United States:

Most history students are familiar with this map of Africa, dominated by European powers on the eve of the First World War. After 1918 the German colonies were divided between Britain and France, and Africa remained under foreign control for the following decades. The color coding indicates the following: Great Britain in red, France in blue, Portugal in purple, Germany in light green, Spain in pink, Italy in emerald green, Belgium in yellow. Only Ethiopia and Liberia, which were created as homelands for freed slaves in the mid-19th century, remained independent:

It is hard to imagine these days that a small country like Britain once controlled a quarter of the world's land masses, including huge populations such as India's. Here is the British Empire in the 1920s, following the annexation of the German colonies in Africa and the division of former Turkish territories in the Middle East between Britain and France:

Here are some similar maps from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This is an Asian vision of the world situation during the Chinese Revolution of 1912. This map was published in Japan, but reflects the many foreign influences in China at the time. During this period, before the start of World War II, the “Russian bear” posed a threat to all of Europe and Asia. Britain is depicted as a sea monster, reflecting the country's position as the dominant naval power at the time. Germany is depicted as a fanged warthog: