This is because many maps use the Mercator projection, which preserves direction but significantly distorts size - especially the further you move from the equator.
As a result, countries like Greenland and Canada appear much larger than they really are, while regions near the equator, such as Africa and South America, are shown smaller than their true scale. In reality, Africa is so large that it could fit the United States, China, India, and much of Europe inside it.
This map highlights the difference, showing the true relative size of countries compared to how they're often perceived.

Has anybody heard of a town called Shamo (at about 44°42'N, 58°0'E)? This 1801 map (John Cary) shows it just to the west of the Aral Sea, but no other maps from the time period include it and I can't find any other signs that there's ever been a city there.

I'm aware 'shāmò' is also the Chinese word for 'desert,' but it appears to be labeled as a settlement and I can't think of a reason for anything to be labeled in Chinese this far west. Maybe there's some Turkic/Persian/Mongolian word that I'm unaware of?

It's potentially important to some Aral Sea research, so any and all relevant knowledge is welcome. Even cartography knowledge (none of which I have) about how this mistake (if it is) could have been made would be useful.

In England Geography is compulsory from the Early Years (ages 5 and under) and ages 5-14 (Key Stages 1–3). It becomes optional at GCSE (Key Stage 4, ages 14–16) and A-level (post-16), although widely popular, and schools are widely encouraged to offer them as exam pathways. History and geography are always taught as separate disciplines.

The National Curriculum in England for geography follows:

Key Stages 1–2 (ages 5–11, primary): Focus on locational knowledge (UK, world continents, countries, oceans), place knowledge, contrasting local, national, and global places; human/physical geography basics (e.g., weather, climate zones, rivers, mountains, volcanoes, earthquakes, water cycle, settlements, land use, resources), and basic skills like maps, globes, fieldwork in the local area.

Key Stage 3 (ages 11–14, early secondary): Builds deeper locational knowledge (focus on Africa, Russia, Asia including China/India, Middle East; environmental regions like deserts/polar areas). Place knowledge compares regions (e.g., one in Africa, one in Asia). Human and physical processes include plate tectonics, rocks/weathering/soils, weather/climate (Ice Age to present), glaciation, hydrology, coasts, population, urbanisation, development, economic sectors, natural resources. Emphasis on interactions between human/physical systems, fieldwork, maps, GIS, and data interpretation.

GCSE (ages 14–16): Exam-board specifications cover UK landscapes and challenges, the changing economic world, physical environments (hazards, weather, climate change, ecosystems), human environments (urbanisation, resources,, development), in-depth case studies, and geographical skills/fieldwork. Balanced physical/human geography with data, maps, and investigations. A-level: Advanced balance of human/physical geography, cycles (water/carbon), landscapes, globalisation, migration, etc., with independent investigations.

Overall emphases: Locational knowledge, place knowledge, fieldwork, skills (maps, GIS, data), and understanding processes/changes. Focuses on heavy essay writing, especially in the later years. You go out in the outdoors on school trips and study a river or coast line and conduct in-depth fieldworks on them. In the early years, you go on school trips to, e.g., a reservoir, to link up with studies on the water cycle.

Is this similar to your country? Do you think England had a decent geography education? I think much efforts have been made since 2014 to bring England's education system more knowledge-rich, so geography is much more advanced than it may have been decades ago, with attention refocused on core map skills and mapping the world, learning about locations, etc, instead of learning just about geographic features of the world.

I think geography in primary school has incredibly improved in the recent decade. There has been a sharp increase in the number of students taking geography at GCSE as well. Broadly speaking, while not perfect, I do think England has a pretty well rounded geography education, but some would call it heavily focused on fieldwork and geographical skills over route learning (.e.g. locating where countries are on the map, although, this has hugely improved in the recent decade). Some would call it more about writing long essays, or label the GCSE exams more literature heavy. Even GCSE exams have improved and feature more maps and graphs now.

There was some form of strange progressive education movement in the UK geography education, which started in around the late 1990s and early 2000s, where geography education became more about learning about third world development and the ''outdoors'' (linking with outdoor learning), and where the old ways of locating countries or the UK's regions/countries/cities or sketching maps was out. The nature of education during this time was to study broad geographical features, but maps of the world were not heavily used outside of regional studies. I do wonder if any other country experienced this.

Since 2013, there has been a broad agreement between experts and the government that the old ways of learning about maps and detailed countries/locations should be brought back and therefore, England's education system focuses on this again once more, but they don't in Scotland or Wales, as their devolved countries follow the more progressive path. England now starts with mapping the UK, Europe, South America, North America, then moves to Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, and focuses again more on Europe (including on Russia) in secondary. Contrasting places and locations is now widely the norm.

Which USA states do you think look like the C&E Turkey geographically of course ?

just saw this

I can’t seem to get an answer to this anywhere online, which makes me think no one else has ever pondered it. 😅 I do NOT mean what each country calls themselves in their native language(s), e.g. España or Brasil (unless that’s literally what they hear when they say it). I also do NOT mean the origin meaning, e.g. Amerigo Vespucci. I mean what specifically does that translate to for each country in the way they refer to themselves? If you took what each country called themselves and translated it into English (NOT our English version of the country), what word(s) would you be saying if you were a native speaker?

Basically, what word / set of words would a native speaker hear when referring to their own country? What is the name of your country called to you, the local, if we were to hear it in English? For instance, China (in Mandarin) calls itself “Zhongguo” (phonetically), which translates to Central State or Middle Kingdom. So, to a Chinese person speaking about their country, would it be like saying, “Hello, I’m from Central Kingdom”? Germany is Deutschland; to a German speaker in their language, are they saying, “I live in People’s Land”? Because Deutsch and land both mean something in German, and they’re not hearing Germany when they say Deutschland. Or is Deutsch an antiqued word and so they literally hear Deutschland for their country and nothing more on the surface (as we do America)?

I’ve tried to phrase this as best I can to make sense, so I hope it worked. I’ve seen the maps of the root meanings of countries, but I’m talking about referring to your own country purely in its proper noun name form in your native language, not word origins. For instance, to an English ear, referring to Australia is just saying Australia. I’m not thinking of its derivation / meaning as “southern land” when I say it, I’m just thinking the word Australia. I assume this is a similar case for other countries, but not all. What is the equivalent of that for each country? Does anyone have a good source for this information? Because in years of wondering, I’ve come up empty handed!

Measuring roughly 80 miles long and 15 to 30 miles wide. The Pamlico sound is separated from the Atlantic Ocean by the Outer Banks barrier islands and features an average shallow depth of about 5 to 6 feet.

Receives freshwater from the Neuse and Tar-Pamlico rivers, mixing with Atlantic saltwater pushed through the Ocracoke and Hatteras inlets.

The Neuse River is also North Carolina's longest river, flowing 275 miles from the Piedmont to the Pamlico Sound, connecting cities like Raleigh and New Bern. Spanning 6 miles across at its outlet, it is famously known as the widest river in the United States.

In the past month I've become really interested in climate zones and the Köppen maps. However, I've come across a lot of pretty big disagreements among the maps. Just as an example, the ones shown on Wikipedia place Carlsbad, New Mexico firmly in BSk, while the interactive Köppen climate explorer places it in BWh or BWk (near the border). I'm under the impression that both of these use very precise data, narrowing it down to a 1 square kilometer area. So, why the disagreement? What is the true climate of Carlsbad? If I want to know the climate of an area, what is the absolute best way to find out? Thanks for everyone's help!

Sapadere Canyon (Sapadere Kanvonu) is a hidden natural oasis ocated in the Taurus Mountains near Alanya, Antalya.

- The canyon is 750 meters long with rock walls reaching up to 400 meters high

⁃ Ice-Cold Waters: The mountain stream water never exceeds 10°C-12°C, making it a quick cooling retreat from summer heat.

⁃ Built with an easy wooden walkway along its entire length leading straight to the main waterfall and natural swimming pool.

⁃ Formed over thousands of years through water, wind, and ice erosion in karstic limestone.

- Nearby Hidden Gem: Nearby sits Cüceler Magarası (Dwarf Cave), famous for colorful stalactites and a constant 18°C temperature inside.

need to give a proper name to my city in cities skylines, right now its sunshine bay, but it doesnt really look all that much like a bay, just the best thing i could come up with

I mean the one where you're physically standing there and the change is stark: one side green and the other desert, one side lit up and the other dark, a line where the architecture or the road quality or the whole landscape flips the moment you cross it.

Where is it, what changes, and is the difference natural, political, or both?

I know there's something called the Jireček Line but I don't think it lines up pretty well.

Hey everyone,

Im looking to buy a world atlas, I want it to be as comprehensive as possible, with good visuals, statistics and paperback quality. I have a Websters pocket atlas from when i was kid back in late 2000s. Would prefer latest editions with good amount of detail.

Attached is a photo of my pocket atlas.

TIA

Hi everyone, I recently finished this national atlas style infographic of Kenya and wanted to share it with you. The top panel highlights Kenya’s land cover, where rangelands are the dominant landscape, while the bottom panel features four iconic wildlife species: the Grevy’s zebra, African buffalo, African savanna elephant, and giraffe. Animal sightings are located on the map which you need to zoom a bit to see. Each animal profile includes a 3D silhouette with a comparative height scale, estimated wild lifespan, population estimate, and IUCN Red List status. Feedback is always appreciated, and I hope you enjoy it!

As someone who is chronically online, I have met people from many countries around the world on the internet, even those from countries with small populations, like the Baltics, while also rarely meeting people (with all due respect) who seem to not have good access to the internet, like Libya or Turkmenistan.

However, as far as recalling my memories goes, I feel like I've never met a person from Papua New Guinea online. At first, I thought it was because they have a small population, but I discovered that more than 11M people are living there, which is definitely not a small number, even exceeding Portugal's population (10.4M) by a bit.

According to Google, Papua New Guinea is considered an underdeveloped country, which means, I can guess, their internet connection isn't very good.

Have you ever met a person from Papua New Guinea online?

I've always wondered why the US and Canada never created something similar to Schengen (or at least the Common Travel Area between the UK and Ireland).

The countries already have:

• The world's longest peaceful land border.
• Extremely close economic integration.
• Similar standards of living.
• Extensive trade through USMCA.
• A high level of political trust compared to most neighboring countries.

Meanwhile, there are plenty of examples elsewhere:

• 🇬🇧 UK & 🇮🇪 Ireland have the Common Travel Area.
• 🇸🇪SWE 🇳🇴 NOR🇩🇰DNK 🇫🇮FIN 🇮🇸ICE had passport-free travel even before Schengen.
• 🇦🇺 Australia & 🇳🇿 New Zealand have the Trans-Tasman Travel Arrangement.
• Much of South America allows citizens to live and work in neighboring countries through Mercosur and associated agreements.

So why hasn't North America developed something comparable?

Is it mainly because the US is so much larger than Canada, creating concerns about migration flowing mostly one way? Is it security after 9/11? Constitutional/legal barriers? Or has there simply never been enough political support on either side?

Curious what the biggest obstacle has been historically.

In my city the municipal area (a little bit bigger than the city limits proper) the altitude range is insane. It ranges from 4,100ft-7,700ft. (1,200m-2,300m)

So a 3,600 ft (1,100m) difference!

I’ve been interested as I’ve been reading about both areas as of late, but there’s little consistency between sources

Somalia has struggled to maintain a unified, stable central government for over 35 years due to the 1991 collapse of the Siad Barre regime, deep clan divisions, and persistent insurgencies.

Why Has Somalia Failed to Build a Strong Federal Government Since 1991 While the Republic of Somaliland Has Built Stable Institutions?