I’m a little embarrassed that I’m just getting around to reading this old Mapping Hacks post from last June, but I thought the growth and decay of empires over time map was very interesting. Rich’s link is dead now, but Googling for it came up with this, which I think is the same thing.

Going through old notes I stumbled on this link to a flash animation of the Middle East, showing the growth and decay of empires over time (link).
“Imperial History of the Middle East: Who has conquered the Middle East over the course of World events. See 5000 years of history in 90 seconds.”

I used to sit in history class staring at the maps showing European borders from pre-WWI, then through the two World Wars. I’d marvel at the strange names. It was not just countries, but whole empires of which I was totally, or nearly totally, ignorant.

Interesting stuff.

[From Who has conquered the middle east]

I just heard about this new wiki and had to check it out. The first thing that struck me was the number of ads — 3 on every page: one big house ad* below every entry; a vendor ad along the left, and another distracting animated house ad* along the top. The second thing that caught my attention was the lack of any stated policy about the licensing of the content people contribute. As far as I can tell Questex Media Group will own anything you write on this wiki. Both the ads and the information rights are in stark contrast to what you’ll find on Wikipedia. And finally, why does the geo industry need a separate wiki? I’ve been perfectly happy without one. If Questex can’t address these issues, this wiki is dead on arrival.

* Note for those not in the publishing business. A house ad is an advertisement for the organization providing the content. For example, when a TV network shows an ad for an upcoming show on its own network, that’s a house ad.