Strange Maps

A vintage map illustration showing the Arctic region, including parts of northern Europe, Greenland, and surrounding seas, with radial lines converging at the North Pole.
White text on a light grey background reads "Strange Maps" in a large, serif font.
The world, seen sideways.

Most maps show the world as something to be navigated. Strange Maps reveals the worlds humans have imagined.

Since 2006, Frank Jacobs has been collecting and interpreting maps that do more than chart geography or political borders. These maps — often obscure, beautiful, funny, and deeply revealing — each tell a story, usually one that’s more about how we see ourselves than where we are.

Published as a book in 2009 and a Big Think column since 2010, Strange Maps draws on a steady stream of reader submissions and rare discoveries. Together, they offer a way of seeing the world from unfamiliar angles, where cartography becomes culture, argument, and art.

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Frank Jacobs is a journalist whose work explores how culture, history, and imagination shape the way we see the world.

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strange maps
Memorizing London’s 25,000 streets changes cabbies’ brains — and may prevent Alzheimer’s
One of the toughest vocational exams in the world requires candidates to memorize 25,000 streets in an area five times the size of Manhattan.

Frank Jacobs

A person stands next to a large book titled "The Knowledge," symbolizing mastery of the city’s map.
A map showing the route of a voyage from sweden to norway.
The Trojan War was fought in Finland and Ulysses sailed home to Denmark, says one controversial theory.
A map of antarctica with the word west antarctica.
The Antarctic Treaty of 1959 prohibited nations from making new land claims on the continent. But it never mentioned claims from private individuals.
A map with a circle and a circle in the middle.
The $21.5-billion project could involve tunneling hundreds of feet under Lake Geneva.
A graph showing the death rate on everest.
The world’s highest mountain is also the world’s highest cemetery, with some bodies serving as creepy landmarks for today’s climbers.
A map showing the location of the arctic sea.
No shots fired. No flags raised. And no dry land gained. Still, the U.S. effectively grew by the size of about two Californias in December.
A map of europe with many orange dots.
London’s busiest airport seems to be rebounding well from the pandemic — but Istanbul has better prospects in the long run.