so when and where can you see solar eclipses? Tintin Knows

this was such a mind boggling map

you would have expected the eclipse to be visible on so much more of the Earth's surface, at least I would, but not in this case!

read and wonder.

I am always reminded of Tintin in the Prisoners of the Sun whenever I hear Solar Eclipse, do you remember it?

tiny maps

All this to be taken with a grain of piquant salt!!!

Damn Foreigners: Giving names to British Places!!!

heh

Click here for the high resolution photo. 

And this one.

What did Europe Look like in the 20th century?

whilst people are getting all excited about Brexit, I am always reminded about what Zhou En Lai (China Premier) was reputed to have said in 1971 about the French Revolution of 1789..."too early to say"> By the way, the quote is wrong, see here. But I like the idea that there are very long term repercussions and we need to be cognisant of that. I frequently use the example that we are still paying for World War 1...No literally, the British Public was still paying for World War 1 expenditure till recently.

So it was with interest I saw this map of Europe

its 115 years back now...1900. You had the Ottoman Empire. you had the austro-hungarian empire, the russian empire, the german empire, all faffing around. Also, Norway was part of Sweden then..no Finland.

in 2016, all of this has gone...Brexit, my dear friends, is a pimple on the dimple on the left arse of a busy ant in the greater sweep of things.

This is how Troy Looked like...possibly

So this is an illustration of how Troy looked like. We think. It is a fascinating perspective, when you read Homer, you can actually imagine where he took liberties and where my imagination failed. Most fascinating.

Life at the time of Ibn Batuta

Reading about the old man in this book by Ross Dunn, there’s a new theory which was mentioned, Marshall Hodgson and William McNeill developed this Ecumene model, the belt of agrarian land from the Med basin to China, where the major civilisations arose, most cities sprang up and most important cultural and technological innovations were made.

He would have travelled during the Abbasid Caliphate and here’s a map of the Caliphate when it was at the greatest around 850 AD

Before that was the Ummayad Caliphate and this is how it related to the rest of the world in 750AD

Fascinating the range of empires which was around when the Ummayad’s were pootling around..

The Atlas Blaeu-Van der Hem

Kids

I saw this atlas long time back at the British library where it was on loan. 

It's a massive tome. At the time this was made, you've got to remember that the books weren't printed in colour that easily so these were made by hand. 600 maps kids. By hand. Painted. Imagine doing such kind of painting with very very fine brushes, sometimes containing only a few hairs. 

These were meant for royalty. And the royals would commission these books for posterity. Like they would commission a painting or sculpture. 

Fine fine work. And it would open up vistas across the world. These royals will look at the maps and want to send out their people in embassies to go visit and trade and colonise. Maps are powerful things kids. Do you know that many governments still control maps? Or they force google not to show some maps of military bases or private land? It's location information. And so it's expensive. 

Cartography is a fascinating subject. Remember the map we got didu? That's almost 200 years old. She loved it. She is after all a professor of geography but you two also should realise the importance of geography and cartography. It's beautifully illustrated for Diya and it's all about politics, philosophy and economics for Kannu. 

Very interesting. See the images. And these were imagined just a few hundred years back. Lest you find this funny, remember the Malaysian airline which was lost in the South Indian Ocean? A searcher said that there are locations on the earth which are literally unknown. We know more about the surface of the moon and mars than earth. Go figure. 

Love

Baba

The Atlas Blaeu-Van der Hem - Medievalists.net
http://www.medievalists.net/2014/03/23/atlas-blaeu-van-der-hem/

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This documentary takes a look at the Atlas Blaeu-Van der Hem – one of the largest and greatest atlases ever assembled. Created by Willem Blaeu and his son Joan in 17th century Amsterdam, the atlas contains nearly 600 maps charting the world. It was published in different languages – Latin, German, French, Spanish and Dutch.

This documentary also shows how publishers created a facsimile of the historical eight-volume Atlas in the Austrian National Library.

Mr Selden’s Map of China’, by Timothy Brook

Kannu
Remember how I was talking about the map yesterday from the topkapi palace and how Columbus used it? When we gifted didu her antique map and old indenture agreement?

Here's another interesting map and you can actually see it when you go to oxford. Do remember to go see it and let me know, I'll want to pop up one day to see it as well son.
Love
Baba

I saw this article when using the Financial Times app and thought you might be interested:
Financial Times,
‘Mr Selden’s Map of China’, by Timothy Brook
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Review by Lisa Jardine
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Lisa Jardine navigates through a vanished Anglo-Chinese world
Read the full article at: http://on.ft.com/1dQdOR9

Another enchanting view of the earth

From here.