FOR THE WILDLY CURIOUSThe world is
The world, at your fingertips.Explore the map Map: Natural Earth · simplified preview
The world is
full of stories.
Find yours.
Take the scenic route through places, people and cultures. There’s a whole world beyond the familiar.
Surprise meJump to a random story, country, region or seaThe world, at your fingertips.Explore the map Map: Natural Earth · simplified previewDifferent places. Shared humanity.
Always something to discover.
Always something to discover.
DISPATCHES FROM THE ATLAS
14 deep cultural stories across 7 continents
The Guardians of Timbuktu’s Desert Manuscripts
The Spice Route on Your Plate
A Journey Through Rajasthan
Voices Carved in Stone: The Decipherment of Maya Hieroglyphs
Water Beneath the Sand: The Thousand-Year Foggaras of the Sahara
Carved from the Living Rock: The Sunken Churches of Lalibela
The Way of Tea: Harvests, Hearth, and Silence in Uji
Labyrinths of Stone: Madagascar’s Tsingy de Bemaraha
Untranslatable Words: Five Histories Behind the Label
Festivals That Bring People Together
Bread of the Ancestors: Sourdough and Clay Ovens of the Levant
The Living Root Bridges of Meghalaya
Whistled Tongues of the Ravines: The Silbo Gomero
Rajasthan’s Forts: Water, Walls and Living Cities
The Guardians of Timbuktu’s Desert Manuscripts
The Spice Route on Your Plate
A Journey Through Rajasthan
Voices Carved in Stone: The Decipherment of Maya Hieroglyphs
Water Beneath the Sand: The Thousand-Year Foggaras of the Sahara
Carved from the Living Rock: The Sunken Churches of Lalibela
The Way of Tea: Harvests, Hearth, and Silence in Uji
Labyrinths of Stone: Madagascar’s Tsingy de Bemaraha
Untranslatable Words: Five Histories Behind the Label
Festivals That Bring People Together
Bread of the Ancestors: Sourdough and Clay Ovens of the Levant
The Living Root Bridges of Meghalaya
Whistled Tongues of the Ravines: The Silbo Gomero
LET THE WORLD SURPRISE YOUSomewhere new
Somewhere new
starts here.
Follow your curiosity across the map.
Across land and sea. Follow a new story.
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Map details & sources
Equal Earth projection · Natural Earth repository v5.1.2 (lakes layer v5.0.0) · Public domain. Sources: land and boundaries, marine areas, lakes and reservoirs.
Country / regional area Ocean / sea / lake / water feature Source disputes / claims Small-place locator
This is a generalized map from a fixed Natural Earth dataset, not a live record of territorial control. Hatching and dashed lines show the source’s disputed areas, claims and reference lines. Lease areas use a fine teal outline, including Baikonur (Baykonur in the dataset) within Kazakhstan; these are not additional countries. Their display—and a link to an atlas page—does not express a position on sovereignty or recognition.
The inland-water layer includes lakes and reservoirs, with major named features clickable; it is not every lake worldwide. The Aral Sea link combines the source’s North and South Aral components without restoring its historical shoreline. Other mapped areas without a matching atlas entry use a neutral fill and link here. Separately catalogued territories retain their regional pages; the country collection remains 195. Small-place dots are locators, not enlarged borders. Like every flat world map, this projection changes shapes; coastlines and islands are generalized for display.
Kazakhstan Aerospace Committee: Baikonur lease context ↗ · Natural Earth boundary policy ↗ · Data licence ↗ · Browse all countries →
PICK A PLACE. FOLLOW A STORY.
Where will curiosity take you?
Some places stay with you long after you’ve left.
COUNTRIES, TERRITORIES & REGIONS
Destinations
- CapitalSmolensk
- Population863,987
- Area49,779 km²
- Density17/km²
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OCEANS, SEAS, BAYS & LAKES
Oceans & seas
- Area6,236 km²
- Max depth668 m
- Volume1,738 km³
- ShoresKyrgyzstan
Explore this water
- Max depth7,000 m
- Length3,200 km
- BasinAtlantic Ocean
Explore this water
- Area1,109 km²
- Max depth280 m
- Length80 km
- ShoresCanada
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- Area3.5 m km²
- Max depth5,559 m
- ShoresPeople's Republic of China + 7
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WORTH GETTING LOST IN
Stories for the curious.
Labyrinths of Stone: Madagascar’s Tsingy de Bemaraha
A climber’s pierced boot soles lead into Bemaraha’s cave-cut limestone, its small wildlife habitats and the human histories associated…
Whistled Tongues of the Ravines: The Silbo Gomero
A question about the ferry sits in a schoolbook beside its whistled spelling. On one side is ordinary Spanish:…
The Guardians of Timbuktu’s Desert Manuscripts
The trunks began as oil drums. Metalworkers in Mopti hammered them into chests, and couriers used them to carry…
Untranslatable Words: Five Histories Behind the Label
After the Second World War, William Barclay asked the Red Cross and Allied agencies tracing looted property to help…
Carved from the Living Rock: The Sunken Churches of Lalibela
The cross on Saint George's roof lay below Francisco Álvares. Visiting Lalibela in the 1520s, the Portuguese priest found…
Festivals That Bring People Together
A clay image takes months; Recife’s frevo fills the street; a household offering remembers one person. These festivals show…
Voices Carved in Stone: The Decipherment of Maya Hieroglyphs
Alfred Maudslay found the carved stone already fallen. His diary entry for 19 March 1882 records the lintel at…
The Way of Tea: Harvests, Hearth, and Silence in Uji
Rice left a clue beneath the tea bushes at Okunoyama. Gen Inoue and his colleagues dug into the soil…
Water Beneath the Sand: The Thousand-Year Foggaras of the Sahara
In a photograph made in 2025, a water measurer in Ben Aissa holds a copper plate above the channel.…
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The Spice Route on Your Plate
At Óc Eo in southern Vietnam, a grinding tool carried traces of spices. A 2023 study reports 717 starch…
ONE WORLD. SO MANY WAYS IN.
Nine topics.What sparks your curiosity?
Follow a flavor. Uncover a history. Find a different point of view.
Endless connections.
HistoryStories that shaped us.FoodA taste of somewhere.Art & ArchitectureMade to move you.PeopleMeet the world.Traditions & FestivalsLife, celebrated.NatureFind your wild.LanguageMore than words.PlacesGo beyond the familiar.CultureEveryday extraordinary.
MORE WAYS IN