Map of the Mekong: One River, Six Countries, From Tibet to the Delta
The Mekong is the great river of mainland Southeast Asia. It rises on the Tibetan Plateau, flows south through China, then forms borders and crosses…
Map of the Red Sea: Two Continents, Two Gulfs and One Narrow Strait
The Red Sea is a long, narrow strip of water between Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. On a map it looks like a crack, and…
Map of the Caspian Sea: Five Countries Around the Largest Enclosed Body of Water
On a world map the Caspian Sea looks like a lake that forgot to stop growing. It has no outlet to the ocean, yet it…
Map of the Appalachians: The Old Mountains of Eastern North America
On a map of North America the Appalachians are easy to miss. They have none of the jagged height of the Rockies, and their summits…
Map of the Danube: From the Black Forest to the Black Sea
The Danube crosses more countries than any other river in Europe, and it is the easiest way to read the map of Central and Eastern…
Map of the Carpathians: One Mountain Arc Shared by Seven Countries
The Carpathians are the mountain range that most people in Western Europe cannot place on a map, even though it is longer than the Alps….
Map of the Pyrenees: The Mountain Wall Between France and Spain
On a map of Europe the Pyrenees look like a straight line drawn with a ruler between France and Spain. That impression is close to…
Map of the Indian Ocean: Monsoon Routes, Chokepoints and Island Nations
Unlike the Atlantic and the Pacific, the Indian Ocean never reaches the Arctic. Asia caps it, Africa borders it to the west, Australia to the…
Map of Patagonia: Two Countries, One Ice Field and a Lot of Wind
Patagonia is a region rather than a country, and its borders depend on who is drawing them. What every map agrees on is the outline:…
Map of the British Isles: UK, Great Britain and Ireland Untangled
Few places on a map produce as much confusion over names as the islands off the north-west coast of Europe. Great Britain, the United Kingdom,…