Geographical distribution of Tai-Kadai languages
‘How are the ones in China? Are they dead? Are they alive? Are they “alive”? … Kra doesn’t seem to be hanging on as well as the other ones but generally they have pretty sizable native speaking populations (in/around the millions)’
1820 map of Asia - by Annin & Smith
‘This is a really sensible Europe-Asia division, I must say. I don’t understand why is Bashkiria with its Central Asian affiliations supposed to be in Europe. Nor the historical Pontic-Caspian steppe inhabited by Turkic nomads with an unclear difference from e.g. Kazakh nomads. Just because those lands got settled by a European power and the previous population got removed doesn’t make them European, at least not unless you think East Thrace became West Asian when settled by the Turks’–Humanophage
1856 map of Eurasia River Systems
‘Didn’t notice the title at first & thought it was an alt-history map. You could almost divide the Basins into empires of their own; like in the Atlantic River systems most all of it was controlled by Rome, outside of Scandinavia, Germany, Poland, & Russia’–aces101
1801 Map of Asia
‘Fascinating! Some random observations:
The Caucasus range has scoliosis
The Red Sea is called the “Arabian Gulf” (rather than the bay between Arabia and India, which is unlabelled)
Lake Balkhash is swol
Mongolia includes Xinjiang
The Tarim Basin is called “Little Bucharia”, and Uzbekistan/Tajikistan is called “Great Bucharia”
The Chinese Empire includes Nepal, Bhutan, Korea, Sakhalin, and the mainland coast up to the Strait of Tartary
There are places labelled “Eluths” scattered all over eastern China (edit: apparently “Eluths” was an alternate name for the Oirat)‘–AbouBenAdhem
Tree Cover Density and Human Settlements of south, east, and southeast Asia
“This is such a good one.
Look at Japan, how its almost entirely forested mountains, except the 3 huge urban areas where all the people live.
Compare with China which in the North is completely flat and unforested farmland with a more spread out population. The south of China is more forested and mountainous, which could reflect the cultural and linguistic differences between the more unified north and the diverse south”–Fummy
Bible lands and the cradle of western civilization - 1938 National Geographic map of the Middle East
[9759 x 6878]
South Asia solar energy potential
[10394 x 8503]
East Asia and Pacific solar energy potential
[9449 × 9449]
GDP per capita in Asia (2018)
“GDP per capita is not a direct measure of wealth per person, but the yearly economic output per person per year. However the countries that have a high GDP per capita produce a lot for their populations, and low ones produce little for their population. This does not necessarily measure wealth per person, but can be used for the general idea of which countries have wealthier citizens on average”–some_dawid_guy
Exaggerated Relief Map of Indochina at night
“Maybe probably just call it Southeast Asia”–noisy_goose
“Think Indochina is better - as it refers to Mainland Southeast Asia”–AJgloe
Asian Watersheds
“In the words of a Pakistani politician “When it rains, there’s water. When it rains a lot, there’s a lot of water.”
(I kid you not this dude said that during a flood)“–Ghostly_100
“In the words of an American president “One of the wettest we’ve ever seen, from the standpoint of water.”–SultanJar
1570 map of the south, east, and southeast Asia - by Abraham Ortelius
[6053 x 4118]
Ottoman secessionist movements following the First World War
“Don’t think the Kurds would be too happy lol”–gaysianrimmer
Exaggerated relief map of East Asia at sunrise
[5000 × 5000]
Eurasia at night
[3000 × 3000]
1735 map of East Asia - by Jacques Nicolas Bellin
[3446 × 2571]
Map showing the islands of Japan, the Korean peninsula and the coast of China with relief shown pictorially.
1570 map of east and southeast Asia - by Abraham Ortelius
[5987 x 4247]
“I’m trying to make sense of my country (Philippines). I can’t really. 😂”–monroejaspers
Laurie and Whittle’s 1797 chart of the Indian and Pacific Oceans between the Burma, New Holland and Japan
[5000 x 6194]
“This is the eastern half of a Map currently held on exhibition called ‘Terra Australis to Australia’ at The Treasures Gallery, National Library of Australia”–AJgloe
“You have to applaud North Korea for how effectively they’ve been able to isolate themselves from the rest of the world. It’s really impressive”–Karmonit
“What’s interesting is that UAE and Oman appears more bright than Bangladesh, despite having a tiny fraction of Bangladesh’s population density”–MrShithole
