Lisbon · Borders · Place guides
Lisbon Geography: Tagus Estuary, Hills and City Boundaries
Lisbon is often pictured as a city of hills beside a vast expanse of water. Both impressions are useful, but neither tells the whole story. The water beside…
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56 articlesPortugal · Borders · Map guides
Douro River Map: Duero, the Border and the Wine Valley
One river from Spain to the AtlanticThe Douro and Duero are the same river: Douro is its Portuguese name and Duero its Spanish name. It rises in Spain,…
Hanoi · Borders · Place guides
Hanoi Geography: Red River, Lakes and City Boundaries
Hanoi’s geography is easier to understand when three things stay separate: the city center, the wider municipality and the Red River landscape. Each describes a different scale, and…
Borders · Map guides
Sarajevo Geography: Map, River Valley, Population and City Boundaries
A city name can describe a skyline, a government area or a much wider region. Sarajevo makes that distinction especially important. Its river valley gives the urban landscape…
Borders · Map guides
World Shipping Chokepoints Map: Routes and Alternatives
A narrow passage can shorten a voyage, but closing it does not always leave ships another way out. The useful question on a shipping chokepoints map is not…
Borders · Map guides
High Seas Treaty Map: Which Ocean Areas Does It Cover?
A map of the High Seas Treaty needs more than one shade of blue. The water above a location and the seabed below it can fall under different…
Aras River · Borders · Map guides
Aras River Map: Borders, Tributaries and Its Connection to the Kura
A blue line on a Caucasus map can be a river, an international boundary, or both. The Aras is especially easy to misread because it passes Azerbaijan’s separate…
Georgia · Borders · Comparisons
Georgia Regions Map: Administrative Regions vs. Historic Provinces
Svaneti, Samegrelo, Kakheti and Tbilisi can all appear on maps of Georgia, but they are not equivalent kinds of place. Some names describe present administrative areas, some describe…
Borders · Map guides
St. Lawrence Seaway Map: How Ships Travel Between the Great Lakes and Atlantic
A freighter can travel between the Atlantic and the Great Lakes, but not by following every natural river connection. The missing pieces on a simple lake map are…
Borders · Map guides
Suez Canal Map: Which Seas It Connects and How the Route Works
The Suez Canal is easy to recognize as a shortcut on a world map, but a closer view raises better questions. Why does the route widen into lakes?…
Alaska · Borders · Map guides
Bering Strait Map: How Close Are Alaska and Russia?
Two maps can give very different answers to “How close is Alaska to Russia?” without showing different countries. One measures between the continental mainlands; the other includes two…
Brazil · Borders · Comparisons
Latin America vs. South America: The Difference on a Map
Mexico and Brazil can both be described as Latin American, but only Brazil is in South America. The apparent contradiction disappears once a cultural region is separated from…