Satellite map of the Netherlands

Satellite map of the Netherlands

1050 x 1325

‘I see a lot of water here, dutchies. Start filling that up like the beavers you are

Actually we decided not to fill up the remaining water bodies because we have turned them into fresh lakes which we use for our drinkwater/irrigation supply in the dry summer months

Your country looks beautiful, compact and comfortable. I’d like to visit it one day’

Satellite Map of Mauritania

Satellite Map of Mauritania

5880 x 6744

‘do they have border posts in the middle of sahara?..

Yes and no.

So, Mauritania is on the southern side of the Sahara. There is one “road”, in the Western sense, which enters Mauritania from the North - it’s on the coast. This has a border post, customs checks, a little shack selling compulsory vehicle insurance to travellers &c. Once you get out of the minefield, there’s a good surfaced road heading towards Nouadhibou and Nouakchott.

It is possible to enter Mauritania from the North at other points - there are tracks which might be passable by a 4x4 - but it is not easy, and traffic volumes are very low. Mostly smugglers and terrorists and military and “freedom fighters” (these categories can be a bit blurry)’

Satellite map of Mali

Satellite map of Mali

1979 x 1783

‘Mali might be the best example of Europeans drawing borders. It just doesn’t look real, especially in a satellite image. Straight lines through the sand, two completely different climates, landlocked. It just looks fake

Lo and behold, that massive desert chunk in the North is completely ethnically and functionally politically distinct from the densely inhabited, green southern portion

Who could have guessed that people who live in very very different conditions, with very different lifestyles, mostly isolated from one another would be politically distinct’

Satellite map of Vatican City

Satellite map of Vatican City

1208 x 975

‘How many entrances does the Vatican city have tho

For what I know(I live really close of it) there are at least three car entrance for inner workers, walking entrance from the square and the basilica, walking entrance from the Vatican’s museums and walking entrance (or escape) from the neighboring Castel Sant’Angelo, even though the latter is now in disuse since the castle is Italian state property. So I would think 5, there is also a heliport you can see in the lower left* I don’t know if you want to count that to 6

And a train station’

Greater New York ... metropolis of mankind - by the National Geographic Society [1933]

Greater New York … metropolis of mankind - by the National Geographic Society [1933]

9430 × 7839

‘Kinda shocked me when I learned Hudson county NJ by itself is as large as the population of Seattle.

Wonder how they took this photo back then?

Edit: Surprised me that Hudson isn’t even the largest county by population in Jersey, Bergen is at 932,202 which would put it just under Austin Texas. Certainly doesn’t feel that way though as Bergen feels like many small towns and Hudson one large city (have heard some reports that Hudson county has really terrible census returns leading to undercounts)‘–Sybertron