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Friday, January 26, 2007

A Wonder of the Web - Holy Land Maps

Holy Land Maps is pretty much exactly as it sounds: a website that has maps of the Holy Land (which includes modern-day Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Iran, Syria, and Palestinian Authority). What makes it special is that the maps are at least 85 years old and as much as 600 years old.

Click on the image above to go to the website homepage.

The maps are scanned from the Eran Laor Cartographic Collection at the Jewish National & University Library in Jerusalem, Israel, and the collection is searchable by date, by person (who created the map), and by location.

This site is a lot of fun to browse through - especially if you enjoy looking at maps (like I do). One of my favourites is this one, published in 1486:

A close-up of Babylon.

There is also this one.

A fish convulsing in the Mediterranean.

The maps are works of art and definitely worthwhile to look at, especially if you're interested in the evolution of mapmaking.

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