Google Map of the Week

Athens Historical Buildings

If you are visiting somewhere like Athens, Greece one of your priorities would surely be to view some of the city's historical buildings. Using the historical monuments database from EIE (Archaeology of the City of Athens) Phil Stubbings has created this Google Map showing the location of interesting architecture in Athens.

The map includes a slider navigation control that allows you to refine the buildings shown on the map by date range. So, for example, you could choose just to view buildings erected in the city in the 16th century. The map also has a good search function that lets you search for architectural styles, for example 'neoclassical'.

As well as finding the location of historically important buildings in the city you can also overlay an historical map of the city from 1890.

I really like this map. In fact it has just sneaked in at the last minute to claim the crown for 'map of the week'.

The Decade Volcanoes

Inspired by some recent Volcano-related posts over at Google Sightseeing, I thought it'd be neat to look at the 16 "Decade" Volcanoes around the world. Decade Volcanoes, according toWikipedia are "the 16 volcanoes identified by the International Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth's Interior (IAVCEI) as being worthy of particular study in light of their history of large, destructive eruptions and proximity to populated areas."

Like most mountains (as we saw earlier this year), these volcanoes look stunning in Google Earth. They're listed below in alphabetical order. Click the "KML" link for each one to view it for yourself in Google Earth.

Avachinsky-Koryaksky - Kamchatka, Russia - KML

Colima - Jalisco and Colima, Mexico - KML

Mount Etna - Sicily, Italy - KML

Galeras - Nariño, Colombia - KML

Mauna Loa - Hawaii, USA - KML

Mount Merapi - Central Java, Indonesia - KML

Mount Nyiragongo - Democratic Republic of Congo - KML

Mount Rainier - Washington, USA - KML

Sakurajima - Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan - KML

Santa Maria/Santiaguito - Guatemala - KML

Santorini - Cyclades, Greece - KML

Taal Volcano - Luzon, Philippines - KML

Teide - Canary Islands, Spain - KML

Ulawun - New Britain, Papua New Guinea - KML

Mount Unzen - Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan - KML

Vesuvius - Naples, Italy - KML

Are there are volcanoes that you find particularly interesting? Leave a comment and let us know!

Seeking map data in response to Pakistan floods

According to the UN, the recent floods in Pakistan have affected over 4 million individuals - and the human toll continues to grow. Disease is an ever-increasing risk as relief agencies rush to the aid of those who have been hurt or displaced.

Google’s Crisis Response team has provided satellite imagery and KML layers to assist relief efforts in past disasters, including the Haiti earthquake and recent Gulf of Mexico oil spill. In Pakistan, however, the cloud cover over the impacted areas has inhibited our ability to make this valuable content available. The Crisis Response team is looking to collect and aggregate imagery and user generated KML, or other map data, with the goal of making this content more accessible to both crisis responders and the general public. We’re hoping you can help. You can submit links to KML and map data via the following form. We’ll contact you if we are able to publish your content.

Friday Fun with Google Maps

Google Earth has a New Competitor



Project MyWorld is a new video game that will be released next year. The game takes place on a stylised map of the world. From the sneak previews released so far the game looks like it will be some kind of awesome.

Mystery Airplanes on Google Maps

Gawker have been hunting out mysterious airplanes on Google Maps. They have found planes in people's backyards and a plane that appears to be submerged in the sea.

Steam Punk Google Earth




One of life's burning questions has been how would Victorians have controlled Google Earth? The answer is with the Electromagnetic Geospacial Globe and Remote View with Obligatory Goggles.

Ping Pong Google Earth


Of course in the 21st Century we are far more advanced and the boffins at the Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis have created a navigation control for Google Earth out of a couple of ping pong balls.

London Twitter Cloud




CASA have also created a great Google Earth based visualisation of geospatial data from Twitter.