Explore a place
Explore published maps, place guides and geography articles connected with Europe.
Aras River · Borders · Map guides
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…
Rioni River · Landforms · Map guides
The Rioni links the Greater Caucasus with Georgia's Black Sea coast, but its route is not a straight line from mountains to sea. Its tributary basin, changing valley…
Alazani Valley · Landforms · Map guides
The familiar view across Kakheti is a broad lowland framed by mountains. A river map shows something larger: headwaters, tributary valleys, a cross-border river and a downstream reservoir.…
Georgia · Borders · Comparisons
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…
Danube River · Countries & regions · Map guides
The Danube’s blue line and its drainage basin describe different geographies. One follows the river from southern Germany to the Black Sea; the other gathers tributaries and headwaters…
Alaska · Borders · Map guides
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…
Estonia · Borders · Map guides
“Baltic countries” usually means three neighboring states, but a map of the Baltic Sea shows many more countries. The useful distinction is between the three-state region, the sea’s…
Gibraltar · Borders · Map guides
The gap between Spain and Morocco looks small on a world map, but three different questions are often bundled together: where the strait lies, how far it is…
Tbilisi · Travel geography · Place guides
A warm afternoon in Tbilisi does not tell you whether the Black Sea coast will be dry or a mountain trail will be snow-free. This guide compares three…
Finland · Borders · Comparisons
Finland and Iceland are Nordic countries, but are they Scandinavian? The answer depends on how someone is using “Scandinavia.” A useful starting point is to separate a common…
Italy · Cities & capitals · Map guides
Florence is in Tuscany, Venice is in Veneto, and Rome is in Lazio. A regional map connects familiar city names to the larger administrative areas around them. Start…
England · Countries & regions · Comparisons
These names overlap, but they do not describe the same area. The easiest way to avoid mixing them up is to ask what kind of thing each name…