2026-04-01 11:18 UTC
4/ Another bit of cartographic fun is the long tradition of map makers hiding figures in their maps
SwissTopo has a nice article with several examples from their maps:
https://www.swisstopo.admin.ch/en/hidden-images-20161221
#geoweirdness
Replies (2)
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@opencage@en.osm.town 2026-04-01 12:51
5/ to close out our little thread of geographic jokes here's a fun one from our very own @mtmail and naturalist #OpenStreetMap mapping https://mastodon.social/@mtmail/116329520012697501 "Map Like You were Born To" #geoweirdness
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@SK53@en.osm.town 2026-04-01 12:23
@opencage The first one of these I learnt of was the Elephant contour line, seen in a map exhibition at The British Library in the early '80s. Covered here by Strange Maps: https://bigthink.com/strange-maps/670-nil-how-to-hide-an-elephant-the-1923-gold-coast-survey/ I'd missed the Swisstopo ones but there's a good collection on the Ordnance Survey map of the Isle of Wight: mainly draughtsmans' names hidden in cliffs.