This map is from the Agile Rabbit Book of Historical and Curious Maps (Pepin Press, 2005). It’s a British map dating from 1897, explaining geographical terms by showing them in the sort of landscape they’re supposed to describe… In the process producing a map of the most generic country ever.
The country is bounded in the south by an ocean called ‘Ocean’, which closer to land is labelled ‘Gulf’, ‘Sea’, ‘Channel’ and ‘Bay’. Several islands are named ‘Island’, except where they occur in a group, in which case they’re called ‘Group of Islands or Archipelago’. Or ‘Islets’ where they’re very small. Other land features include several ‘Capes’, a few ‘Promontories’ (also called ‘Headlands’), a ‘Sea Shore’, some ‘Cliffs’, a few ‘Peninsulas’, of which one is connected to the mainland (called ‘Continent’) by an ‘Isthmus’.
A ‘Sea Port Town’ is located near a ‘Port or Harbour’, slightly further inland is a city called ‘City’ and further still a village called ‘Village’. To the east is a ‘Town or City’ (one wonders when a locality is a ‘Town or City’ rather than just a ‘City’). There are several streams labelled ‘River’, some of which instructively have a ‘Tributary’ or end in a ‘Delta’. A ‘Canal’ is marked to differentiate it from the natural flows it connects.
A ‘Water Shed’ divides the draining systems of different rivers, and in the distance a ‘Hill’ and two ‘Mountains’ (one culminating in a ‘Table’, the other in a ‘Peak’) demonstrate the different types of elevation. To the east, a ‘Crater’ and a ‘Volcano’, puffing away, complete the picture. Other natural features include a ‘Desert’, punctuated by the inevitable ‘Oasis’, a ‘Lake’ and a much larger ‘Lake or Inland Sea’.
As for other map features referring to human presence, there are ‘Boundaries’, and ‘Roads’ crossing at, you guessed it, ‘Crossroads’. The country is called ‘Country or Kingdom’ (republics being unwanted impositions on the tender imaginations of turn-of-the-19th-century British school kids, I suppose).
Discovered this today via metafilter. A beautiful blog with fantastic (and fantastical!) maps. I hope you never get tired of updating!
Comment by vito90 — February 20, 2007 @ 1:21 am
hah, thats great.
Comment by spatulated — February 20, 2007 @ 4:37 am
I don’t know how it works elsewhere, but in the UK the standard defenition of a city is a town with a cathedral. This isn’t hard-and-fast, but it means that most larger conurbations are towns, and only a few are cities.
Comment by Simon Powell — February 20, 2007 @ 1:52 pm
good one.. CHEERS!!
Comment by dowhatufear — February 20, 2007 @ 2:52 pm
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Keep up the good Job.
Sincerely
John Watkins
Comment by Tube Video — February 20, 2007 @ 3:41 pm
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Comment by syahid ali — February 20, 2007 @ 4:14 pm
In Germany, the difference between a city and a town goes back to the Middle Ages and the rights that were accorded to it. Cities were allowed to hold markets and had a few other special rights. I suspect it is probably the same in the UK (or at least England). While every place with a cathedral may be a city, I bet there are some cities without cathedrals.
Comment by DemetriosX — February 20, 2007 @ 4:23 pm
I think, to be fair to the cartographer, he was establishing a dichotomy that a state was either a “country” OR a “kingdom”. France is thus a country; Belgium is a kingdom; the United States of America is a country; Spain is a kingdom, etc. The idea that a “republic” is not a geographical feature, whereas a “kingdom” is would not be employed today, but it is not irrational.
Incidentally, in the United States, every state has its own legal definition of what constitutes a “city”. In Ohio, for instance, it is any municipality with at least 5000 citizens.
Comment by Sartorius — February 20, 2007 @ 5:41 pm
[...] example, there’s a map of the most generic country ever. The country is bounded in the south by an ocean called ‘Ocean’, which closer to land is [...]
Pingback by Strange Maps « Changing Way — February 21, 2007 @ 4:01 pm
There’s tiny echo of the “generic” country on every Ordnance Survey Landranger map. The explanation of symbols is mostly just “symbol / meaning” pairs in the usual style, but for “water features, a map of a generic river and estuary is used.
See http://leisure.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/leisure/tscontent/products/os/landranger/symbols/legend_landranger.pdf
Comment by petebiddlecombe — February 21, 2007 @ 5:47 pm
Reminds me of Greece
Comment by cabbage — February 22, 2007 @ 4:15 am
[...] post by strangemaps and a wordpress plugin by [...]
Pingback by Country Office » 78 - The Most Generic Country Ever — February 26, 2007 @ 10:11 pm
Just a wild guess here — I don’t think it’s a map of anything. Rather, it’s a “guide” to different topographical formations or traits. I n other words, it’s a map that teaches you how to read maps.
Comment by Bored — February 27, 2007 @ 8:11 am
It’s the balkan peninsula, with greece, european side of turkey, bulgaria etc etc
Comment by tuncer — March 1, 2007 @ 10:07 pm
Map legends sometimes have something like this, but this one’s particularly elaborate. I think I remember seeing something very much like it on a color classroom wall map published sometime in the mid-20th century.
In Massachusetts, the city/town distinction has to do with system of government. Towns are run with town meetings; cities have mayors and city councils. (There are some legal cities that retain the “town” designation by tradition, however.)
Comment by Matt McIrvin — March 4, 2007 @ 8:31 pm
Just found your site and love it… how do you find all these maps!? it’s very cool anyway, really interesting.
Found this map by Googling “Agile Rabbit Book of Historical and Curious Maps”, which is where you got it from… as someone who’s obviously interested in maps, would you recommend this book or any others? Am just looking for a collection of weird/wonderful/interesting maps :-)
Regards,
Guy
Comment by Guy Rintoul — May 9, 2007 @ 5:36 am
This site is brilliant and certainly a find, the items you have are amazing! Certainly one for me delicious account! keep it up! and for the record it looks like turkey! haha
Comment by UK Water Features — July 18, 2008 @ 9:02 pm
thanks alot
Comment by Tony — May 4, 2009 @ 2:32 am
thanks for this map.
good
luck
Comment by Solomon — May 11, 2009 @ 7:19 am
merci
Comment by aspicco . — May 17, 2009 @ 5:09 am
teşekkür ederim
Comment by yory — June 12, 2009 @ 8:45 pm
Vielen Dank
Comment by moon — July 3, 2009 @ 3:59 am
Muchas gracias
Comment by sun — July 4, 2009 @ 6:48 am
this map would be loved by all of my stupid colleagues with an IQ of under 50
Comment by razvan — September 30, 2009 @ 6:05 pm