good source for ancient maps?

February 17, 2005 5:07 PM

I am looking for a web resource that shows ancient empires/kingdoms/etc superimposed on the modern map. I am specifically interested in the middle-east, but the entire globe is up for grabs here. Obviously, I prefer a site dedicated to exactly this, but anything close will make me quite happy.
posted by SkinnerSan to Society & Culture (5 answers total)

(nb: self-link-ish) toah does it to some extent (click on pop-up map...)
posted by dorian at 5:43 PM on February 17, 2005

This is a desktop application, not a website, and it may not go back far enough for your purposes. But watching the borders change over time and seeing countries pop into and out of existence is pretty interesting: http://historicalatlas.net/

Caveat: I've only used the demo, which covers the Napoleonic period.
posted by aneel at 6:59 PM on February 17, 2005

I've seen maps like you describe in the frontispieces of various Protestant Bibles, but that's of course offline.
posted by Vidiot at 8:51 PM on February 17, 2005

Try this.
posted by mcwetboy at 10:05 PM on February 17, 2005

There are some excellent maps here and the About Near East Maps page has some good stuff, but I'm not seeing any with the ancient-on-modern labeling you're after. Seems to me I've seen something like that, though. If I find it, I'll report back.
posted by languagehat at 12:09 PM on February 18, 2005