Anyone love maps?

I know a lot of people are fascinated by maps, and despite not being great at deciphering them, I place myself in that group too. In fact, I suspect my fascination may relate to the mystery held within the map...so much information...so much potential. I really like hand-drawn personalized "mud maps" which show landmarks that have special meaning to the drawer. And I also love old maps, which reveal so much about the thinking of the time, like this one. I used it about a year ago in this collaboration with Alex Itin for the Flickr "Library" group.

However, this post was prompted by a Christmas gift from one of my brothers-in-law. It's a book of what I would call "art maps" entitled, Where are you?

I tried to select just a few of my favourites to share with you, but I found it too hard to narrow the choices down, so I decided to scan the back cover which has detail shots from a number of the maps. If you click on the image, you should be able to see an enlarged version.



And one that isn't on the cover, but I simply had to show you. I don't know whether the one below is my favourite, but it does leave me open-mouthed in wonder. My cat would so love to play with that!