Vivid Maps

In the ruins of Uruk, in what’s now southern Iraq, archaeologists have pulled thousands of small clay tablets out of the ground, dated to around 3100 BCE. Most hold grain counts and labor rosters rather than stories, the oldest paperwork on record, and some of the earliest evidence of organized government. For a few thousand years after that, the job stayed narrow: collect so...

Camellia sinensis is the evergreen shrub behind nearly every cup of tea drunk today, native to the borderlands where southwestern China meets northern Myanmar. Chinese legend credits Emperor Shennong with discovering it by accident around 2737 BC, ...

We have already tried to define the borders of Europe, but subdividing the continent further presents an even greater challenge. Having previously looked at Central Europe

Canada is the second-largest country in the world, covering about 9.98 million km² (3.85 million sq mi), stretching from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and...

New York forced the issue first. On April 25, 1901, Governor Benjamin Odell signed a law ordering every vehicle owner in the state to register their car and mount the owner’s initials on the back, in letters at least 3 inches (about 7.6 centimeters) ...