About

Afternoon Map: Because Looking at History is Easier than Reading About It.

Anıl Duman, Uykusuz (February 7, 2013)

Our mission is and will always be to make Afternoon Map the number one Ottoman/Turkish/Middle Eastern/Balkan cartography blog on the internet by bringing you a range of original, visually appealing and intellectually engaging maps harvested from archives and libraries around the world. We hope these maps will appeal to history buffs, travelers and map enthusiasts alike, and to that end we have tried to provide some background for each map, at times even some analysis, without descending into the pedantry that accompanies so much academic writing on cartography. We know maps have biases, embody power relations, show some things, hide others, etc, and we have faith you do too. At the same time, we hope historians and other researchers will find these maps useful for their work. We firmly believe that every book needs more maps, and would be delighted if these maps could be useful toward that end. Finally, we welcome contributions, corrections or comments at nick.danforth (at) gmail.com.

Afternoon Map is edited by Nicholas Danforth and Chris Gratien as part of Ottoman History Podcast, a suite of internet projects dedicated to presenting various historical materials and discussion with the Ottoman Empire as its focus. Currently these projects include:

Ottoman History Podcast: weekly podcast featuring scholars and researchers working on a range of topics related to Ottoman history

Tozsuz Evrak: a close to the source document blog dispalying primary sources and archival materials intended for use by researchers

Afternoon Map: a cartography blog dedicated to presenting quality maps with a maximum pixel-to-word ratio

Stambouline: a history blog where travel and art/architecture of the Ottoman Empire meet

Our header features an image from the Carte drôlatique d’Europe pour 1870. See the whole map and read about its history here.