Hand Drawn Maps

So as we're wrapping up Geography Awareness Week, I thought I'd share what perhaps is the antithesis of the National Geographic MapMachine. It is the very cool website called the Hand Drawn Map Association, which I came across via our friend Anne over at Prêt à Voyager.

The site is the brainchild of Kris Harzinski, and it's a delightfully simple repository of people's sketched out maps. It recently got a plug on NPR's Here and Now, and in the interview, Harzinski says that he set up the site after coming across a set of maps from within the stacks of his old papers, and that each one evoked a memory and told a little story. Looking through all of the submissions, here are some of my favorites: "I heard you broke up with your girlfriend. Here's where to find me," a Dungeons and Dragons homage, a map to fossil layers in Livingston, Alabama, a fake country for a colony of ants, and the best way to get to the passport office in London, England. There are over a hundred to look through, and you can submit your own maps to the site as well.

And while we're on the subject of maps, be sure to check out our collection of very fun walking tour and Insider's Guide interactive maps, now online on Traveler's new website.

Image via the Hand Drawn Map Association.