Cool map websites

A map is a flat argument about a round planet, and the best map websites let you argue back. The cool map websites in this category turn geography into something you can drag, guess, spin and fall into.

The True Size Of ... lets you drag a country to a different latitude and watch it change size, which is a quick cure for Mercator misconceptions. Antipodes Map shows where you would come out if you dug straight through the Earth; usually, the answer is the ocean. MapFight overlays one place on another to settle which is bigger. If you want to wander, MapCrunch drops you onto random Street View locations, and Wonders of Street View curates the strange things the camera car has caught.

Some maps are mostly about the present moment. Flightradar24 shows air traffic live (some features are freemium), OpenRailwayMap charts the world's tracks and signals, and Light Pollution Map shows how washed-out your night sky is. For travel-minded browsing, Atlas Obscura and Roadside America are guides to oddities near and far.

Many Street View sites require Google's imagery to load, so a slow connection can make them sluggish, and we note when a site has a bot wall that blocks automated checks.

Looking for something to play? The GeoGuessr alternatives list collects map-guessing games, and Data & Visualization covers live globes of weather and quakes. Or let the button pick a latitude.