I’m in the market for a new world wall map but can’t decide which one I want. This satellite map is by far my favorite — a joint effort by the NASA Jet Propulsion Lab and National Geographic. But it does not have country names; only the continents are labeled. So my runners-up are this one by the U.S. Defense Mapping Agency, and this one by Gabelli.
I want to hang it in my office at work. I love maps and want to get better with world geography.
5 responses so far ↓
1 Sean Keener // May 1, 2003 at 2:54 pm
Great maps – I have always wanted this 9 ft by 13 ft beast that I see in the skymall magazine everyting:
http://www.skymall.com/webapp/skystore?process=prodDisplay&action=&pid=7317593
Gonna look more at the one’s you linked to.
2 Dave Reed // May 1, 2003 at 9:58 pm
The page for the Gabelli one says it’s from 1999 – kind of old. If the USDMA version truly is “up-to-date” as claimed on that page, then I’d go with that one.
I’d be surprised that Nat’l Geographic doesn’t have a good one.
3 vis10n // May 2, 2003 at 8:46 am
I’d suggest the US Defense Mapping one… more political detail, and more subtle relief imaging. With the Gabelli, it will be hard to remember that were the earth the size of an orange, that all the surface features and the atmosphere itself would be the thickness of a sheet of tissue wrapped around it.
4 gabe // May 2, 2003 at 9:51 am
Ooh, yeah- I love the giant map from SkyMall, too! Maybe some day when I have a house with a wall big enough, I’ll buy that one.
Yeah, I’m leaning toward the US Defense Mapping one. I also like that in that map, North America is not centered on it, which is a great reminder that despite what Americans often think, we aren’t the center of the world.
5 jordan // May 3, 2003 at 12:08 am
The Buckminster Fuller Institute (www.bfi.org) has a great map of Spaceship Earth at:
http://www.bfi.org/images/SatMapPosterLarge.jpg
Fuller’s map is the most geometrically accurate map of the world. The best example is to look for Greenland and be amazed how small it looks when not HORRIBLY stretched as it is on almost all maps.
Fuller wanted to portray the earth as a single connected body not seperated by the vastness of oceans. One giant spaceship….