World historical maps available in the format of Google Maps

Employees of the University of Portsmouth (England) launched an online project called Old Maps Online, which represented approximately 60,000 ancient world maps. The oldest map of the project is dated 1551 year.

The site is interesting because it is not just a collection of graphic pictures, but it contains maps that comply with a standard Google Maps API. This means that a user has the opportunity to explore a certain area, using the zoom, or find a town by using the search form.

After entering geographical area of interest in the search string, on the right side you’ll see the map that covers this area. When you click on the icon with the map, appears a window, which shows the full info of the map and a link clicking on which you can see the full version of this map. It should be noted that most of the maps are not located on the server of the University of Portsmouth.

Maps for the project were provided by David Rumsey, the British library, library of Moravia, etc. It is expected that by the beginning of 2013 the database will be enlarged due to the maps of Harvard University, New York Library, etc.